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Trần Thanh Vân, also known as Jean Trần Thanh Vân (born 4 July 1936, Đồng Hới, Quảng Bình Province), is a Vietnamese-French physicist.

Biography

Vân attended secondary school in Huế. In 1953, he left Vietnam for France. He studied mathematics and physics at University of Paris and earned his undergraduate degrees in 1957. In his PhD work, Vân, still at the University of Paris, turned his studies toward particle physics, focusing on the neutron as the natural partner of the proton in the structure of matter. He defended his thesis and obtained his doctoral degree in 1963.

After his PhD, Vân joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he spent his whole career. In 1991, he was given the title Directeur de Recherches, the most senior research position in France. As of 2001 he is emeritus Directeur de Recherches.

Vân's scientific work has focused on nucleon interactions at medium energy and the deuteron's relativistic wave function, the 2-body interactions at high energy, Regge poles and absorption models and the dual parton model. He has co-authored more than 300 scientific articles.

Vân is a promoter of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, which was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2021.

Rencontres

Trần Thanh Vân has become internationally renowned as the organizer of scientific meetings, in particular for the series Rencontres de Moriond, Rencontres de Blois and Rencontres du Vietnam.

Rencontres de Moriond

The first meeting took place at Moriond in the French Alps in 1966.

This was the very prototype of winter conferences, which has developed to be an essential moment in the high-energy physics year: the moment for which all experimental collaborations prepare a new release of data, and which theorists await with great expectations. At the «Rencontres ‍de ‍Moriond», young ‍scientists—both theorists ‍and experimenters—at ‍the ‍post-doctoral ‍level, ‍meet ‍senior ‍researchers to ‍discuss ‍the results.

Rencontres de Blois

Since 1989 the «Rencontres de Blois» have been organised in the city of Blois, in France. While the Blois meetings have dealt with several topics, one of their great achievements has been to recognize (like Moriond) the cross-disciplinary field of astroparticle physics. The meetings have covered topics ranging from particle physics to chaos theory, life and planetary science.

Rencontres du Vietnam

The series «Rencontres du Vietnam»started in 1993 when Vietnam first re-opened to foreign scientists. The meetings are based on the same principle as for Moriond and Blois.

Private life

He is married to Lê Kim Ngoc since 1961. The couple has two adult children. In 1970 Vân and Ngoc established the association «Aide à l’Enfance du Vietnam», to set up the SOS Children's Village in Vietnam.

Awards

• Knight of the National Order of Merit, France (1993)
• Knight of the Legion of Honor, France (1999)
• Certificate of Appreciation, American Physical Society (June 2000)
• Docteur honoris causa, Russian Academy of Sciences (May 2001)
• Order of Friendship, Vietnam (2015)
• Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics (2011)
• Docteur honoris causa, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (2016)

References

1. ^ "Jean Trân Thanh Vân". aip.org. 8 September 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
2. Tran Thanh Van, Jean (1964). "Contribution à l'étude des corrections relativistes à la fonction d'onde du deutéron et à la diffusion élastique électron-deutéron". Annales de Physique. 13 (9): 139–178. Bibcode:1964AnPh...13..139T. doi:10.1051/anphys/196413090139. ISSN 0003-4169.
3. Trâǹ, Jean Thanh Vân; Gourdin, Michel; Jancovici, Bernard (1963). Contribution à l'étude des corrections relativistes à la fonction d'onde du deutéron et à la diffusion élastique électron-deutéron / par Jean Trân Thanh Vân,... (Thesis). Sudoc. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
4. "Jean Tran Thanh Van : "Sans science fondamentale, le monde ne peut pas avancer"". Sciences et Avenir (in French). 28 June 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
5. "Jean Trân Thanh Vân's author profile in INSPIRE". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
6. "Jean Trân Thanh Vân". International Year of Basic Sciences for Development. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
7. ^ Del Rosso, Antonella (2 April 2012). "The inventor of the "Rencontres"". CERN Bulletin. CERN. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
8. Jepsen, Kathryn (1 May 2012). "One degree of separation: the Vietnam connection". Symmetry Magazine. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
9. "ATLAS in the Italian Alps for the Rencontres de Moriond 2013". ATLAS Collaboration. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
10. "50 years of particle physics at Moriond". CERN. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
11. "Le Docteur-professeur Trân Thanh Vân et sa Rencontre de Blois". Nhândân en ligne (in French). 23 April 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
12. Pepe Altarelli, Monica (1994). "Physics in Vietnam". CERN Courier. 34 (2): 17–18.
13. "Internationally famous Vietnamese scientists". Hanoi Times. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
14. "Chuyện kể năm 2018 của Giáo sư Trần Thanh Vân". Saigon Times Weekly (in Vietnamese). 26 May 2018. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
15. "All for the home country". baobinhduong.vn. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
16. "Kim et Jean Tran, mariés avec la science". Le Monde.fr (in French). 27 May 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
17. VnExpress. "A passion for science, a deep love for Vietnam - VnExpress International". VnExpress International. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
18. "Décret du 24 juin 1993 portant promotion et nomination". legifrance.gouv.fr. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
19. "Distinctions Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur BO 08-1999". dgdr.cnrs.fr. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
20. "Décret du 13 juillet 1999 portant promotion et nomination". legifrance.gouv.fr. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
21. Jackson, Judy (4 August 2000). "Fermi News: Jean Trân Thanh Vân". fnal.gov. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
22. "Professors Tran Thanh Van, Le Kim Ngoc awarded Friendship Order". 9 July 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
23. "People: awards". CERN Courier. 41 (7): 33. 2001.
24. "Professors Tran Thanh Van, Le Kim Ngoc awarded Friendship Order". SGGP English Edition. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
25. Dylla, H. Frederick (2020), "Bringing Science Back to Vietnam", Scientific Journeys, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 63–65, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55800-0_15, ISBN 978-3-030-55799-7, S2CID 226620372, retrieved 6 December 2021
26. "Jean Trân Thanh Vân receives Tate medal". ILC NewsLine. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
27. "Giáo sư Trần Thanh Vân nhận bằng Tiến sĩ danh dự từ JINR DUBNA". Báo giao thông (in Vietnamese). 10 July 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2021.

• French physicists
• Living people
• Knights of the Legion of Honour
• Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
• French people of Vietnamese descent
• Recipients of the Friendship Order
• 1936 births
• French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists
• Scientists from Paris
• University of Paris alumni