Nobel laureates touch down in Vietnam for science conference

Two Nobel Prize-winning professors and hundreds of scientists from around the world are in Vietnam for a two-day conference to discuss the role of science in socio-economic development.

The two-day conference, which is part of the 14th annual Meeting Vietnam (Rencontres du Vietnam), opened on Wednesday in Quy Nhon in the central coastal province of Binh Dinh, with the theme “Science for Development.”

Hundreds of prestigious scientists have gathered at the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education for a series of discussions to highlight the role of science in sustainable socio-economic development.

Among them are Dutch Professor Gerard‘t Hooft, the 1999 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, and Norwegian Professor Finn E. Kydland, who claimed the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Both urged Vietnam's government to issue favorable policies for science.

When a country has no good committment to science and technology, there will be adverse impacts on the society, said Kydland. He delivered a speech on issues related to economic policies and sustainable growth in Vietnam in 2016.

Professor Hooft also visited the country last year to talk with students at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi.

He said at the Quy Nhon conference that young people will be the force to push science development, stressing the importance of building an effective education system.

Meeting Vietnam was founded by Professor Tran Thanh Van, a leading physicist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, to create an opportunity for local and international scientists to meet and exchange ideas.

The conferences started in Quy Nhon in 2000, and became an annual event in 2011, with support from local authorities and Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology.