French science academy anoints first Vietnamese scholar

A law professor from Ho Chi Minh City has become the first Vietnamese member of the French Academy of Overseas Sciences, a society established in 1922 to study France’s former colonies.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Dien, deputy rector of the University of Economics and Law at the Vietnam National University-HCMC, will be officially granted membership at a ceremony this Friday, a source from the school said.

Dien, who is on the board of the Francophone University Association, has also been anointed a Knight of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest accolade, for his contribution to France-Vietnam relations.

The French Academy of Overseas Sciences (Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer) is a learned society founded originally under the name “Academy of Colonial Sciences” to study colonial issues. It now focuses on the geography and history of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.