Rencontres du Vietnam, A bridge for international cooperation

To be recognized and highly appreciated by the international scientific community for the success of Rencontres de Moriond, Blois Meeting, in 1993 Prof. Tran Thanh Van, Chairman of two above-mentioned scientific organizations, began to bring scientific activities (international conferences, workshops, summer schools, scholarships, etc.) to Vietnam, creating the first step for the establishment of Rencontres du Vietnam. Rencontres du Vietnam was officially established in France on August 19, 1996 and on an official press release in France in October 2, 1996. Rencontres du Vietnam was formed under the 1901 Law on Associations and Organizations of France. It is an association of France with its name “Rencontres du Vietnam” and was licensed to operate in Vietnam under the permission given by People’s Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM) – the Committee for Foreign Non-Governmental Organization Affairs. Rencontres du Vietnam has officially been an important partner of UNESCO since 2012.

For more than 20 years of operation in Vietnam, Rencontres du Vietnam has organized 13 series of scientific conferences (Meeting Vietnam) and five series at the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), Quy Nhon City since 2013, attracting thousands of well-known professors, scientists, including Nobel, Fields, Shaw and Kavli. Accordingly, in 2016 «The 12th Rencontres du Vietnam», including 12 international conferences and 3 summer schools attracted more than 1,600 professors, scientists. Especially, the international conference «Fundamental Science and Society» was the greatest one of «The 12th Rencontres du Vietanm» with the participation of four Nobel- laureates, many well-known scientists and big economic corporations in the world: Airbus, Sanofi,Solvay. «The 13th Rencontres du Vietnam» in 2017, including 12 international conferences and 6 summer schools attracted more than 1,500 leading professors, scientists, including Gerardus’t Hooft – A Nobel-laureate in physics in 1999. Beside international conferences and workshops, Rencontres du Vietnam has also organized a number of public talks given by Nobel laureates; exchange meetings between Vietnamese excellent students and Nobel laureates. These are specific activities of scientific conferences held by Rencontres du Vietnam.

In addition, Rencontres du Vietnam co­operated, assisting the training of talented undergraduatecoursesand offered scholarships for excellent students and postgraduates; training more than 1,500 teachers for «hands on» method, period 2000 – 2010. Since 2011, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has decided to officially use «hands on» method applied at Primary Schools and Secondary Schools in Vietnam. The Ministry of Education and Training in collaboration with Rencontres du Vietnam annually deploys the training for this teaching method.

Since 1994, Rencontres du Vietnam has offered scholarships to excellent Vietnamese students. In 1997, Rencontres du Vietnam began to offer scholarships to excellent undergraduate students with the participation of Nobel laureates. It is the fruitful scholarship program that Prof. Odon Vallet completely supported and decided to fund and together with Rencontres du Vietnam, to establish Vallet – Rencontres du Vietnam Scholarship Foundation to provide more scholarships to excellent Vietnamese students. Since 2000 till now, Recontres du Vietnam has offered scholarships to more than 25,000 Vietnamese students in Vietnam with a total funding of more than VND 250 billion. In France, Rencontres du Vietnam annually offers 15-20 scholarships (€ 8000/each, equivalent to VND 200 million/each) to Vietnamese students with excellent academic results.

Rencontres du Vietnam, chaired by Prof. TranThanhVan decided to choose QuyNhon City for the construction of the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education, where annually organizes international scientific conferences and has attracted thousands of well-known scientists in the world, including 11 Nobel-laureates, 2 Fields Medals, 02 shaw and Kavli Medals. Besides, Rencontres du Vietnam also proposed the idea and assisted the People’s Committee of Binh Dinh Province to implement the project “Space of Science” and together with ICISE to form a highlight of Quy Hoa Science and Education Urban Area. The area will become an ideal destination for scientific activities, creation, discoveries by both national and international scientists. It will also be an attractive address for the teenagers as well as the youth of different provinces/cities in Vietnam to do scientific experiments in different fields, helping them explore science in a very interactive manner.

With such recorded results, Rencontres du Vietnam continues to build a bridge between Vietnam scientists and international ones; building and implementing cooperation, development and connection of scientific researches in the future.

Source: BinhDinh Bulletin – 10/2017
Author: Lê Chiến, Translator: Thắng Nguyễn