More than 250 physicists have gathered in Ha Noi
"Rencontre du Viet Nam" - an opportunity for young physicists

Ha Noi (VNA) - More than 250 physicists have gathered in Ha Noi for a six-day workshop entitled "Rencontre du Viet Nam" which opened on Friday.

They are from Viet Nam and 31 other countries and territories all over the world, including the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Germany, China, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Norway, Denmark, the Republic of South Africa, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Prominent among the participants are Fermilab Director General Michael Witherell, Chairman of the US Physics Association Helen Queen, and Director of the Moscow Nuclear Research Institute Valery Rubakov.

Nobel laureates J. Cronin, S. Glashow and Ly Chinh Dao of the US, J. Friedman of the UK, and C. Rubbia of Switzerland, are among members of the conference's international consultation board.

The conference serves as a precious opportunity for Vietnamese young people to meet and discuss with wellknown scientists in the world, said Professor Nguyen Van Hieu, co-chairman of the conference.

Co-chairman, Prof. Tran Thanh Van of France said since the "Rencontres du Viet Nam" was first organised in Viet Nam in 1993, many Vietnamese scientists have been invited to cooperate with international scientific workers. Viet Nam is the only country in Southeast Asia to be invited to join the World Physics Collaboration group which includes representatives of more than 10 countries.

Vice Counselor of Cooperation of the French Embassy in Viet Nam, Serge Snrech, said the conference is of important significance as Viet Nam still faces a lot of difficulties but its government has paid much attention to training scientists for the next 20 years. He said the French government is ready to assist Viet Nam in this field.

According to the French diplomat, the Vietnamese government should take urgent measures, including training young scientists, and France will help Viet Nam in this work. He added scientific cooperation between Viet Nam and France covers many fields from physics, biology, history to social sciences with 220 education cooperation projects are underway.

Prof. Achim W. Weidemann from South Carolina University of the US suggested Viet Nam send students to foreign countries where they can gain knowledge and experience from foreign professors in data analysis.

Assessing Viet Nam's physics, Prof. Hieu, winner of the Lenin Prize and the Ho Chi Minh Prize, said the sector had recorded rapid development but now is facing many difficulties. He suggested two measures to be taken at a time to develop physical research in Viet Nam, i.e. to uphold patriotism among the youth to attract talent, and to raise income for scientists.

The Professor added: "After the meeting, hopefully, foreign scientists will help Vietnamese young scientists go abroad to work at laboratories and find out financial sources for the latter’s research".-Enditem

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That was a month ago
http://www.vnagency.com.vn/NewsA.asp?LANGU...&NEWS_ID=112589

Hopefully, with all the scientists in Vietnam they can find a way to solve the problem of toxin caused by the agent orange used during the Vietnam War.

I hope so too, but I still wonder if that's possible? the matter was discussed everywhere since the early seventies, because of the US's massively using "defoliant" Agent Orange during a decade in South Vietnam, and conclusions which were reached at that time, was that this poison will last one hundred years in Vietnam's soil.

(The gathering of scientists in Hanoi was in line with a general world movement for peace and healing of war scars -- due to warfare mainly initiated by the US. There were a lot of testing of WMD by the USA at that time. For example I heard a teacher at uni say the military tested a gas in a Central Railways Station in New York or Boston, and all the Blacks were sick, but Whites and other ethnics were not affected.)

Now, perhaps with new discoveries which have been completed about DNA signatures, I hope something can be done for the South Vietnamese. The sooner the better.

Malaysia and Thailand are also involved, not just Vietnam alright.

^From the article.

Only 10 countries are in it. The list that says Thailand and Malaysia are just scientists who were meeting in Vietnam for a six day workshop not part of the World Physics Collaboration Group.

My bad dudes..

No apology needed.