A little history
The teaching and research system in Vietnam has always maintained strong links with the French system, despite the vicissitudes. Vietnam has had a very good level of basic training in mathematics for several decades. In the 1980s, the major influence on mathematics in Vietnam was the Soviet school. In the 1990s, researchers from Vietnam and France began to bring together the cooperations that existed between the two countries, and then to expand them.
At the beginning of the 1990s, a PICS “Formath Vietnam” was created with the help of the CNRS, the Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF) and the French Embassy in Vietnam. In a research landscape under construction, the aim of this PICS was to help attract valuable students to the basic sciences who would form the next generation. Activities have included international conferences and intensive schools (at the master and doctoral levels) held in Vietnam with significant participation of French mathematicians, co-supervised doctorates, travel grants and student internships in France.
The International Associated Laboratory “Formath Vietnam” (LIAFV) was created in 2011 as a continuation and amplification of the work of the former PICS. With its help, we are witnessing
- a significant increase in the number of doctoral theses submitted in France by students from Vietnam,
- a significant number of them returning to Vietnam to work in the university system,
- a significant number of joint publications, many of which are partially supported by LIAFV,
- various activities, including workshops and conferences.
The IRL France-Vietnam in Mathematics and its Applications (FMVA) takes over from the LIA in 2023 and aims to intensify scientific cooperation between the two countries.