French Ambassador to Vietnam, Nicolas Warnery, conferred the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France on Lap and the Order of Academic Palms on Minh on Wednesday at the 2019 International Forum Franconomics at L’Espace, Hanoi.
The Order of the Arts and Letters was established in 1957 to honor individuals around the world who make significant contributions to French culture.
Lap has published more than 20 books in various genres and translated works from French, Russian and English into Vietnamese. He was nominated for the PEN Translation Prize, the so-called Academy Awards of translation in 2014 for his book "Black Stars."
Under his leadership, since 2016 the International Francophone Institute (IFI) in Vietnam has become an interdisciplinary training and research institution.
It plays an important role in connecting Vietnam with French higher education institutes and the global Francophone community.
The Order of Academic Palms is the oldest French order, established by Emperor Napoleon in 1808, and is conferred on distinguished individuals in education or culture.
Minh pursued his post-university studies in France.
He was the president of the Regional Committee of Experts of the Asia-Pacific Francophone University Agency (AUF), chairman of the National Committee on Teaching French as a Second Foreign Language LV2 and the dean of the science education faculty at the Vietnam National University-Hanoi.
Minh was a visiting lecturer at the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in France from 2003 to 2015.
He has authored numerous books and articles on teaching French and training of French language teachers.