President Emmanuel Macron has recently signed a decision to promote the Legion of Honour awarded to the couple on the occasion of Bastille Day, confirmed a representative of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE) in Quy Nhon, on July 14.

Previously, Prof. Tran Thanh Van, a physicist, was awarded the Knight rank of the Legion of Honour on February 23, 2000. Likewise, Professor Le Kim Ngoc, a biologist, received the same title on September 6, 2016.

Prof. Tran Thanh Van has long been associated with initiatives such as the "Rencontres du Vietnam" (Meet Vietnam) programme, the ICISE in Quy Nhon, the Vallet Scholarship, and the SOS Children’s Villages.

He has played a pivotal role in connecting influential international scientists with Vietnam through the "Rencontres du Vietnam" and notable scientific events such as “Rencontres de Blois” and “Rencontres de Moriond.”

In 1953, he went to France at the age of seventeen to study and graduated from the University of Paris with two BAs in Physics and Math in 1956.

Only two years later, he successfully defended his Master thesis and started to work in Elementary Particle Physics industry in 1966, he became a PhD in the same year. From then on, he was not only lecturer at the University of Paris but also a senior researcher at the France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

In 1993, he co-founded the "Rencontres du Vietnam" (Meeting Vietnam) conferences which have drawn in hundreds of astronomers and scientists from around the world.

In 2012, the American Institute of Physics awarded Van the John Torrence Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics in recognition of his role in bringing together physicists, and for his efforts to build a modern scientific community in Vietnam.

He was also recognised as an Honorable Academician by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2012, the American Institute of Physics awarded Van the John Torrence Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics in recognition of his role in bringing together physicists, and for his efforts to build a modern scientific community in Vietnam.

He was also recognised as an Honorable Academician by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Meanwhile, Prof. Le Kim Ngoc is renowned for introducing the concept of Thin Cell Layer (TCL) technology, an innovation that revolutionised plant biotechnology. The TCL method is widely applied in plant propagation, clonal breeding, and gene transfer techniques for developing new varieties.

In the book Thin Cell Layer, published by Kluwer Academic, Canadian Prof Gamborg from Calgary University praised her work as a new method that had revolutionised flora biology technology.

She is also President of the Association for the Support of Vietnamese Children in France and contributed significantly to the establishment of SOS Children’s Villages in Da Lat and Dong Hoi, as well as the Thuy Xuan Children’s Shelter in Hue.

Prof. Le Kim Ngoc is Prof. Tran Thanh Van’s wife and a key collaborator in founding the “Rencontres du Vietnam” and building the ICISE centre in Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh.

France’s Order of Academic Palms presented to Vietnamese Professor

VOV.VN - French Ambassador to Vietnam Olivier Brochet on October 14 awarded the Order of Academic Palms to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Tu, rector of Hanoi Medical University, on behalf of the French Government.