Prof. Ngo Bao Chau: There are many moments when I lose my balance

On the afternoon of April 1, Prof. Ngo Bao Chau had a conversation with students of Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City about the role of mathematics, challenges in the process of learning mathematics, and studying mathematics in the current context. .

After more than 20 minutes of teaching math to students at Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, Prof. Ngo Bao Chau shared stories around Mathematics and life.

Prof. Ngo Bao Chau talks with students, National University of Ho Chi Minh City.

Before the question, Which is easier to solve a difficult math problem and understand a woman?, Professor Ngo Bao Chau shared that both are difficult.

However, the problem is understood today and can be understood tomorrow. A woman can understand today but may not understand tomorrow. Prof. Ngo Bao Chau shared, he is fortunate to have a wife who always takes care of and respects his profession because studying math sometimes he is like an autistic, in his family does not want to talk to anyone.

GS Chau shared that when he returned home, his face would sag, but there was nothing wrong with it. He thinks that it can be a very big psychological burden, it is not easy to have a man who is “heavy and light”. But his wife is very sympathetic to her husband’s work and so are the children. Although he is not a math student, he does not understand what he is doing, but he respects his husband’s work very much. It was a solid foundation for him to do scientific research.

Photo: Ngo Tung

With the question: Is a professor good at balancing everything in life?, or do you have a lazy moment in the day? If there was a teacher, how did you wake up from that laziness?Professor Ngo Bao Chau said that he is not sure if he is good at balancing things, but in fact there are many moments when he is unbalanced.

“The things I’m interested in are mainly mathematics, philosophy, literature… – things that I think perhaps make life more interesting. However, my thinking is that we are not short of time, we just lack focus.Being lazy makes everyone lazy. But the older I get, the more responsibility I feel and try to fulfill my responsibilities. That’s the motivation for me to get out of my laziness. “.

Answer the questionWhat is the biggest difficulty in the research, Professor Ngo Bao Chau said thatWhen doing science there are always different difficulties. But the biggest difficulty is always having to reinvent yourself. At the beginning, I need to be equipped with some knowledge – a thinking weapon to be able to solve some problems.

After a while the existing problems have been solved, it is necessary to continue to find new problems with increasingly more difficult levels. Therefore, researchers themselves always have to renew and change themselves. This is indeed a very difficult thing to do in science.

‘Science deadlock, I think is normal. When doing research, more than 90% of the time it’s deadlocked before a rare breakthrough occurs. But that would be a huge reward on the road to science.”

Therefore, Professor Chau said young researchers should not be too worried when stuck in science. When we are stuck, it is most likely because we do not fully understand the problem, understand it clearly and accurately. Until we do that, we have no hope of solving difficult problems.

In addition, the deadlock can also be because we are trying to solve the problem with the tools and methods of the predecessors who have tried it, so the possibility of deadlock is also very high. Therefore, it is necessary to find a new thinking weapon, different from those who have tried that problem to be able to come to a breakthrough.

In Vietnam, the problem of in-depth research is quite difficult. Do students have the opportunity and motivation to be able to develop in the direction of intensive research?

I think the conditions for scientific research in Vietnam are still very difficult even though they are much better than before. Especially, for specialized fields, to get good quality research requires great effort, courage and investment.

As a student, you should join a research group with a good enough teacher to lead. This person will give you problems and problems for you to study. I don’t think a student can figure out a problem on his own because this is a matter of professionalism. Therefore, it is important to join a research group if you want to pursue a subject in depth.

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Phuong Chi