Le Tuan Hoa, Chair of the Professorship Council in Mathematics

The State Professorship Title Council has announced the list of candidates for professor and associate professor in 2021. The mathematics council proposed recognition for 25 candidates, but only 11 were accepted.

Le Tuan Hoa, Chair of the Professorship Council in Mathematics said the council strictly follows procedures to find candidates who meet requirements for professor and associate professor. Many professors, by the time they are recognized, have had achievements higher than required.

As of 2019, 91 people had been recognized as professors in mathematics, including four recognized as having exceptional status. They included Professors Ta Quang Buu and Le Van Thiem (before 1980), Ngo Bao Chau (2005) and Vu Ha Van (2009).

Including three professors recognized in 2020, there are now 94 professors in mathematics.

In 2021, at the request of the professor council in mathematics, only one professor was recognized. He was Nguyen Sum, PhD, from Quy Nhon University.

As of early 2020 [not including the four exceptionally recognized professors and three individuals recognized in December 2020 - Lam Quoc Anh (1974), Tran Van Tan (1976) and Le Anh Vinh (1983)], there were a total of 87 professors.

Nine were directly promoted to professor without going through associate professor, Hoa said.

They were Nguyen Huu Anh, Nguyen Xuan Loc, Nguyen Dinh Ngoc (1984), Dinh Dung, Nguyen Van Khue, Dao Trong Thi, Tran Duc Van (1991) and Tran Van Nhung and Nguyen Van Thu (1992).

Only two female professors have been recognized, including Hoang Xuan Sinh, who was recognized at the age of 47 (1980) and Le Thi Thanh Nhan at the age of 45 (2015).

The youngest professor at their time of recognition was Pham Hoang Hiep (35, 2017). The other young professors (under 40) were Nguyen Quang Dieu (37, 2011), Le Anh Vinh (37, 2010), Ngoc Viet Trung (38, 1991) and Si Duc Quang (38, 2019).

The oldest individual at their time of recognition was Do Van Luu (75, 2019). The average age of professors at their time of recognition was 51.7.

Of the professors who worked in Vietnam, 13 have passed away. Forty-one are 60 to more than 70 years old and are retired.

Only 35 professors under 70 are still working. The average age of the professors is 61. Only 11 professors are under 60.

If counting scientific articles published by the 35 professors in their career, the highest number of articles was 142, while the lowest was 25, according to MathScieNet. On average, each professor published 63.6 articles. Most articles are in international publications, and two-thirds of them are published in ISI journals.

A matter of concern is their research after title recognition. Many stop their research after obtaining the professorship title. However, this was not the case for the 35 professors in mathematics.

According to MathSciNet, the professor with the lowest ratio had 0.85 article a year (the professor was recognized 13 years ago), while the one with the highest ratio has had nine articles a year (the professor was recognized one year ago). The professor with the second largest ratio has had 5.61 articles a year.

According to Hoa, these figures are relatively high, which shows their passion for mathematics and the high capacity of the professors. In many cases, the achievements that professors received after the recognition were higher than before.

Hoa estimated that there are 300-350 associate professors, and of the number, slightly under 100 are aged 60 or under. A relatively high number are still young and have good research achievements. 

Phuong Chi

Harvard PhD is youngest candidate for professorship title in 2020

Le Anh Vinh, 37, who has a doctorate from Harvard University and is head of the Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences, is the youngest candidate to receive the professorship title in 2020.

Are candidates not eligible for professorship title because they had too many published articles?

Many candidates have been excluded from the list of scientists for professorship title this year because they have had a high numbers of scientific articles published. One candidate published 40-50 articles within half a year.