Since 1983, the first year of the ICTP Prize, only one woman has ever been honoured. She's Hong Van Le. Today, Hong Van Le lives and works in Germany, not only proud of what she has accomplished but thankful for the help that the Centre gave her.

The Prize... Before and After

Vietnamese-born mathematician Hong Van Le was the first and--for now--the only one woman ever to be awarded the ICTP Prize. She received the prize-in mathematics--in 1991.

"I'll never forget the time I spent at the ICTP," recalls Hong Van Le, who remained in Trieste for about eight months in 1991. "It was my first extended stay in Western Europe; the first time I enjoyed access to sophisticated computer equipment; and the first time I could take advantage of an outstanding library. I fondly remember Salam, his smile and encouragement, and the people of the Mathematics Section--not to mention the beauty of Trieste."

Math in Viet Nam has a brief but intriguing history that didn't truly begin until 1945, when Viet Nam proclaimed its independence from France. "Before World War II," Hong Van Le explains, "elementary mathematics was the only math taught in Viet Nam."

"In the years following the war," she notes, "Viet Nam had only one Vietnamese mathematician with a doctorate--Le Van Thiem. He graduated from the French institute Ecole Normale Supérieure and taught mathematics at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, before leaving behind a promising career in Europe in 1948 to join the resistance movement in Viet Nam."

When Vietnamese nationals defeated the French army in 1954, the doors of Hanoi University re-opened. But the university suffered from an insufficient number of qualified faculty, especially scientists. Virtually all the professors, most of whom had been born in France, left war-torn Viet Nam for more tranquil settings. "Le Van Thiem alone continued to teach mathematics. And he gave his lectures in Vietnamese instead of French, a radical concept in a country where the native language had never been used either in universities or high schools," Hong Van Le explains. "I think it's fair to say that almost all teachers who taught mathematics to students from my generation were former students of Le Van Thiem."

"Despite 30 years of war and economic hardship," Hong Van Le says, "mathematics in Viet Nam evolved rapidly from the time independence was declared in the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s, when the war with the United States finally ended."

Hong Van Le notes that "I know almost no Vietnamese mathematician who has not studied abroad, usually in the former Soviet Union. At the same time, eminent mathematicians from many nations--both in the East and West--visited Viet Nam during this time."

Why did Hong Van Le become a mathematician? Her answer is simple: encouragement from her parents and teachers.

"I acquired my love for math from my parents. When I was 10 years old, they urged me to take part in a competition for children who showed promise in math. I did well and what followed was typical for many young Vietnamese students of my generation. In 1978, I went to Moscow State University, where I was a student of Anatolii Timofeevich Fomenko, who supervised my work in differential geometry and helped determine my career path."

After her stay at the ICTP in 1991 as a Visiting Mathematician, Hong Van Le went to the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, Germany. There, she married a German geneticist, Karsten Friztsche, whom she had originally met in Moscow. Their first child was born in 1994; their second in 1998. Hong Van Le currently works at the University of Leipzig's Institute of Mathematics.

"I returned to the ICTP in the summer of 1993 for a conference on differential geometry. Again, I was impressed by how the Centre nurtures professional exchanges among colleagues from around the world. ICTP is a truly international site, without the anti-foreigner sentiments I have often found in other countries in Eastern and Western Europe."

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