Vietnam targets fundamental science
On 5-11 August 2004 Hanoi hosted the Fifth Rencontres du Vietnam, organized by Jean Trân Thanh Vân of Orsay. Two scientific communities - high-energy physicists and astrophysicists - gathered for two conferences: New Views in Particle Physics, and New Views on the Universe.
"Twinning" the conferences in this way was particularly fruitful; the conferences ran in parallel, yet there were common sessions for the presentation of new results of mutual interest. Researchers who are rarely able to be in the same place at the same time were thus able to meet, exchange ideas and launch new cross-disciplinary activities.
The keynote talks, given in a common opening session by Angela Olinto of Chicago and Albrecht Wagner of DESY, were informative overviews of the present state of astrophysics and high-energy physics, highlighting the bridges and tunnels between the two disciplines.
A special session, devoted to the physics of future accelerators and in particular to the difficult question of the next-generation accelerator, was followed by a round-table discussion featuring the directors and representatives of the major accelerator institutes: Michael Danilov (Russia's Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, or ITEP), Yoji Totsuka (KEK), Albrecht Wagner (DESY), Michael Witherell (Fermilab), Stanley Wojcicki (Stanford) and Yongsheng Zhu (the Beijing Spectrometer, or BES).
The 300 participants from many countries included a significant number from Vietnam and the Pacific Rim. Nguyen van Hiêu, on behalf of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, gave an interesting overview of the current state of research in Vietnam. Vietnamese researchers are active participants in international collaborations for two major experiments, D0 at Fermilab and the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. (The Vietnamese contribution to the latter is headed by Pierre Darriulat, formerly of CERN.)
During the meeting, the President of Vietnam, Trân Duc Luong, received a small group of participants from many countries at the Presidential Palace in the presence of Nguyen van Hiêu and Dang Vu Minh of the Academy of Science and Technology.
In his welcome speech, Luong - himself a geophysicist trained in the Soviet Union - emphasized that the development of science and technology is one of Vietnam's major priorities for the coming years. Trân Thanh Vân thanked the President and the Vietnamese people for their warm welcome and support. Danilov, a former director of ITEP, reiterated on behalf of the participants that research in fundamental science is vital for the healthy development of society.
Vietnamese society is rapidly entering a new technological era. Participants who had also attended the Second Rencontres du Vietnam 10 years ago were struck by the changes they saw.