The latest of the now traditional Rencontres du Vietnam, organized by Trân Than Vân, took place in Hanoi last summer. Some 200 participants from all over the world attended, including a conspicuous number of Vietnamese physicists. The conference on Physics at Extreme Energies was held in the Horizon Hotel in central Hanoi, one of the new hotels signalling the rapid economic development of Vietnam. The change was especially evident to participants who were present at the first event of the series in 1993.
Two Nobel prizewinners, Jerome Friedman (who gave a very successful public talk entitled “Are we made of quarks?”) and Norman Ramsey, attended. The packed programme covered all of the most significant recent results in particle physics and cosmology.
Roberto Peccei (UCLA) gave the introductory talk on the fundamental energy scales in particle physics and in the universe. Highlights of the meeting included the recent breakthroughs in the measurement of cosmological parameters; the results of experiments on neutrino oscillations; the latest news from LEP (especially on the search for the Higgs particle and for new physics); and the review of the indications for quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions. Also of interest were the updates on flavour physics, with the results on CP violation in K decay and the start of the BaBar and Belle “beauty factories” that will unveil CP violation in B decays; and the summaries on the status of such diverse fields as QCD, electroweak theory, quantum gravity, astrophysics and cosmic rays.
Nguyên Van Hiêu, chairman of the local organizing committee, described the development and present status of physics in Vietnam. The concluding talks, one on experiment and one on theory, were given by Pierre Darriulat (formerly of CERN and now a distinguished professor at Hanoi) and Guido Altarelli of CERN. Away from the science, concerts of Vietnamese music were organized, introduced and explained by talented musicologist Tran Van Khe, who has become a feature of the whole series of Rencontres.
School for science
Since the first Rencontres meeting in Hanoi in December 1993, an international school in theoretical physics has been held there annually. This attracts not only Vietnamese scientists, but also those from the Association of South East Asian Nations, China and Bangladesh. The seventh such school was held last year under the direction of Patrick Aurenche (Annecy).
In September 1994 Jim Cronin (Chicago) and Alan Watson (Leeds) were invited to look at the possibility of including a Vietnamese group in the international Pierre Auger high-energy cosmic-ray collaboration. For three years now a group led by Vo Van Thuan has been part of this project. Its activities have increased, thanks to the arrival of former CERN physicist Pierre Darriulat, who plays an important role in directing the research of the group.
An advanced technology school, directed by Jean Badier of the Ecole Polytechnique, began in 1996, just after the second Vietnam Rencontres. The first two such schools focused on the physics of silicon, while the latest two covered electrochemical sensors to measure water quality. During this year’s summer meeting, numerous new contacts were made between local laboratories and international research centres. A collaboration between physicists from Ho Chi Minh City and Fermilab is under study to enable Vietnamese scientists to work in major groups at Fermilab.
An important aspect of these meetings is the enthusiasm that they generate among young scientists. Since 1995, talented Vietnamese students have entered the entry exams for the prestigious Paris Ecole Polytechnique. About 20 of them are currently studying there, and many others are attending French and US universities.
