Outstanding contributors to the development of Vietnam’s culture and education were honoured at the 9th Phan Chau Trinh awards presentation ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on March 24.

The awards “For the culture-education cause” were presented to Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan and French physicist Pierre Darriulat.

Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan translated works of literature that brought astronomy closer to Vietnamese readers, while physicist Pierre Darriulat dedicated himself to improving Vietnam’s policy on tertiary education development.

Professor Dao Huu Dung (pen name: Nguyen Nam Tran) claimed the translation award for making Vietnamese versions of renowned Japanese books on culture and history available in Vietnam’s bookshelves.

The research award went to researcher Nguyen Ngoc Lanh for his valuable work related to Vietnamese culture and history.

US Professor Peter Zinoman was the owner of the Vietnam-study award as he has worked diligently to impart knowledge of Vietnam’s modern literature.

The ceremony also honoured Nguyen Van Vinh, a journalist, writer and and politician in early days of the 20th century, as Vietnamese Great Man of Culture.

The awards were instituted in 2007 by the Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation which is run by the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations to preserve, impart and obtain cultural quintessence that will contribute to innovating the Vietnamese culture in the 21 st century.

From 2007 to 2011, the foundation has honored numerous domestic and foreign translators, scientists and culturists namely Bui Van Nam Son, Le Hong Sam, Nguyen Dinh Dau, Nguyen Su, Ho Ngoc Dai, Nguyen Van Khoa, G. Condominas and David Marr.

Born in 1872, Phan Chau Trinh, a national hero, poet and cultural expert, was a reformer who fought in the resistance movement against the French when he was very young. He devoted all of his life to the country's modernisation.

VNA