Professor Pham Quang Hung, a talented particle physicist who was considered a “harbinger” of new physical phenomena in the world, has just left this “temporary world” at the age of 74, leaving behind much grief and loss for his family and colleagues.
The academic "old soldier"
Upon hearing the news of Professor Pham Quang Hung’s passing, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Xanh expressed his regret at the passing of a talented scientist. “After the “old soldiers” on the Vietnamese scientific and academic front such as Cao Huy Thuan, Chu Pham Ngoc Son, Vo Tong Xuan, now Pham Quang Hung has passed away!… Vietnam will still remember you, together with your previous generation of fighters, for a developed, bright and happy Vietnam!”, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Xanh emotionally wrote.
Just a few months ago, we were still able to sit and chat with Professor Pham Quang Hung at the ICISE Center of Professor Tran Thanh Van. At that time, due to fighting a long-term illness, Professor Hung was quite weak and had to move around in a wheelchair, but when it came to particle physics, he surprised us with his passion for the profession and his endless enthusiasm.
At that time, he confided: “At this age (74 years old - PV) when I retired from the University of Virginia (USA), many people asked me if I had rested yet, but I still feel very healthy. I feel young again and have more energy to continue researching unfinished problems. I still have to learn more and more because there are many things I don't know yet...".
Professor Pham Quang Hung was born in 1950 in Ninh Binh, and received his PhD from UCLA (University of California). At the age of 32, he went to the University of Virginia (USA) to work, research, and obtain a professorship and stay there.
Professor Pham Quang Hung's career is associated with many new discoveries and "predictions" in particle physics - including his resounding research at the Fermilab Particle Physics Center (USA) when he "predicted" the balance between the Higgs particle mass and the top quark mass in the formation of the universe (published in 1979) which is still valid today.
In addition, he also made a name for himself with his new research and discoveries on the Small Unification theory of the three forces (weak, strong and electromagnetic) and the Magnetic Monopoles model... which were highly appreciated by his colleagues and have the potential to experimentally find more elementary particles.
Many contributions and plans for the homeland
In his home country of Vietnam, Professor Pham Quang Hung has made many great contributions, leading many generations of domestic physics students to reach out to the world. Since 2006, he has been the official coordinator from the University of Virginia returning to Vietnam to implement the Advanced Physics Program of Hue University, implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training. In this program, Professor Hung has had many initiatives to help reduce costs and time to invite great professors and scientists in the US and other countries to help Vietnamese physics students.
Thanks to that, the program has trained over 200 physics graduates, 1/3 of whom continue to study abroad for higher degrees. Among them, many young researchers from the training "furnace" of Professor Pham Quang Hung have been very successful on the world's scientific "fronts" such as: Dr. Tran Van Que (research at the Taiwan Academy of Science), Dr. Tran Van Ngoc (Kyoto University, Japan), Professor Nguyen Thi Dien has excellently obtained a Professor's degree at a prestigious university in the US...
Dr. Tran Thanh Son, Deputy Director of ICISE Center, shared that in 2004, Professor Pham Quang Hung became a member of the Vietnam Science Association. Since then, he has had many practical activities towards Vietnam, in which he connected with great scientists in the world to organize many international conferences on particle physics, string theory and cosmology...
Dr. Tran Van Ngoc (Kyoto University, Japan), a student of the first course of the Advanced Physics Program in Hue, shared that, besides his research work, Professor Pham Quang Hung had a rather interesting and romantic life. Since his youth, he was very passionate about music and even had to interrupt and neglect his studies to pursue his hobby of rock music. When he retired, he still maintained his two passions of particle physics and music.
For students, Mr. Hung is very open, always letting us freely research and create without having to follow his model or research direction. We still keep in touch and he always remembers birthdays to send birthday messages to each student.
According to students and colleagues of Professor Pham Quang Hung, during his lifetime he planned to return to his hometown of Ninh Binh to organize an international scientific conference on particle physics. After that, he would write and publish books on neutrino physics in Vietnamese to serve students and those who are passionate about this field. Professor Hung also planned to establish a high-energy physics association in Vietnam and build a small neutrino detector at the Da Lat nuclear reactor...
NGOC OAI
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/vinh-biet-canh-chim-bao-hieu-vat-ly-hat-the-gioi-post762778.html
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