Vietnamese math Olympiad silver medalist gets PhD scholarship from Asia’s No. 1 university

Lam, 23, received the offer from the university on July 7, two weeks after graduating from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with first-class honors in advanced pure mathematics. The scholarship is worth some HK$19,000 (US$2,424) a month for the first two years, and is expected to increase subsequently based on his academic and research performance.

At HKU, which ranks first in Asia and 11th globally in the latest QS World University Rankings, Lam will study cluster algebra, an area of mathematics connected to representation theory, and related fields. Three professors from the department of mathematics will supervise him during the four-year program. His principal supervisor will be Chau, Vietnam’s only Fields Medalist, who won the prestigious mathematics award in 2010 and whom Lam has admired since childhood.

Lam was diagnosed with autism as a child and showed an early aptitude for mathematics. With support from his family and teachers, and sustained personal effort, he developed his abilities and gained admission to the High School for Gifted Students at the Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

In 2021, he won a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad and was admitted to the honors bachelor’s program in mathematics at the University of Science, the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. He later enrolled at HKUST in the hope of expanding his knowledge and identifying a research direction.

Dinh Vu Tung Lam. Photo courtesy of Lam

His interest in cluster algebra began in 2024 after HKUST professor Ivan Ip introduced him to the subject and gave him lecture notes to study. Lam became increasingly drawn to the field because of its connections with other branches of mathematics like algebraic geometry, combinatorics, and representation theory. That interest led him to pursue a doctorate, which he viewed not merely as an extension of his education but as the beginning of a serious research career.

He says becoming a researcher will require him to learn how to formulate questions, persist with difficult problems, and accept periods when no clear answer is available. "I know there are many difficulties ahead, but I am deeply interested in mathematics’ fascinating, unresolved questions, as well as its practical significance."

While mathematics seemed to come naturally to him, he struggled with subjects such as physics, chemistry, and Chinese. With his conviction about never giving up and patiently seeking solutions, he sought help from friends, teaching assistants, and professors to improve, he says.

Ip says Lam’s research style distinguished him from his other students. "Lam combines deep understanding with diligence and meticulousness. He pays close attention to definitions and logical structures and is willing to spend time ensuring that everything is completely clear."

The professor often teased Lam for being "too detailed" because he arrived at meetings with carefully prepared stacks of documents before filling the small whiteboard in Ip’s office with notes. That attention to detail, however, became one of his strengths. Ip says further that Lam’s computational ability was comparable to that of an experienced analytic number theorist.

As part of HKUST’s undergraduate research opportunities program, Lam produced nearly 300 pages of notes and calculations. His work earned him an award for one of the program’s best papers in 2025. He also won the HKUST Undergraduate Mathematics Championship three times and received an S.S. Chern Class scholarship for students with outstanding achievements in mathematics.

Despite those accomplishments, he views personal honors as only a small part of a much longer journey. His priority is to continue developing as a researcher and eventually give back to the wider community, and hopes his research will benefit math communities in Vietnam and internationally. He also wants to teach and share his knowledge with young Vietnamese interested in mathematics, including how to understand theorems and solve and present problems.

He is now studying additional materials in preparation for his doctoral program. He plans to develop and broaden a research direction that grew out of a paper he wrote as an undergraduate.

"I do not want to think of myself as someone special; I am simply a person who loves mathematics and wants to pursue research seriously," he says. "I feel fortunate to have received so much support, and I want to help more young people find opportunities that suit them."