VietNamNet Bridge – Dau Hai Dang, Dinh Ngoc Hai, Ngo Phi Long and Phan Dang Huy, the gold medal winners at the mathematics, physics and chemistry international Olympiads showed the strength of the Vietnamese intelligence in the international arena.

Dau Hai Dang, math Olympiad gold medal winner

With one gold, three silver and two bronze medals, the group of Vietnamese students outstripped many powers to rank the 9th among the 100 countries and territories attending the 53rd International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).

This was described as a great achievement of Vietnam if noting that Vietnam ranked the 31st only at the 2011’s Olympiad. The achievement marked the returning of Vietnam – the “S-shaped country” to the list of IMO’s top 10.

Dau Hai Dang, the golden boy of the Vietnamese team, was a 12th student of the math majoring class of the high school under the Hanoi University of Education.

Learning math is always Dang’s passion, just simply because he loves the science, not because he was told to do that by the parents. In the eyes of the teachers of the schools, Dang was “quiet, thoughtful and discreet,” though he always surprised people with his strange ways of solving math questions.

Dang said that he admires the Vietnamese Professor Ngo Bao Chau, the brilliant mathematician and dreams of obtaining great achievements like Chau one day. Therefore, Dang decided to continue studying math at a big university in the world.

Dinh Ngoc Hai, physics Olympiad gold medal winner

All the five members of the Vietnamese team won medals at the 2012 physics international Olympiad. Dinh Ngoc Hai was one of the two physics gold medal winners.

Hai was so proud of his achievement, especially when he won the silver medal before at the 2011’s Olympiad.

Having become an idol for many Vietnamese students, the boy remains modest, friendly and courteous. Hai revealed that he loves mathematics since his childhood, but he later recognized that physics is also a very interesting science.

At the age of four, Hai could read and solve math questions. He was always an excellent student at general school. Especially, he reaped big fruits when he was a 12th grader, obtaining the first prize at the national physics competition, the silver medal at the Asian physics Olympiad and gold medal at the international physics Olympiad.

Ngo Phi Long, physics Olympiad gold medal winner

No one was surprised when hearing that Long won the gold medal, because he was always an excellent student during the 12-year period of studying at general schools.

All the biggest achievements of Long related to physics, the science that Long finds very attractive. Long’s parents are both also physics teachers. Therefore, no one knew that when entering the Son La High School for the Gifted, Long decided to study at a math majoring class instead of a physics majoring one.

Explaining this, Long cited a saying of Albert Einstein--that he learned math so as to learn physics better.

Phan Dang Huy, the chemistry Olympiad gold medal winner

The Vietnamese 4-member team won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the 44th chemistry Olympiad held in the US. With such an encouraging result, the Vietnamese team just inferior to the host team – the US – one silver medal.

The golden boy won the gold medal with very high scores of 89.55/100. Willing to follow the studies on chemistry, Huy has decided to enroll in the Hanoi Pharmacy University. However, he still cherishes the hope of obtaining scholarship to be able to study at a foreign university.

Infonet