The event was part of the Rencontres de Blois (Meetings of Blois) conferences.
Vietnamese Ambassador Dinh Toan Thang highly valued contributions by Vietnamese-French Professor Tran Thanh Van and his wife, Professor Kim Ngoc, to the establishment and operation of the RVN-Vallet Scholarship Fund, which has helped create opportunities for many disadvantaged but talented students of Vietnam to advance on the path of knowledge and science.
He voiced his hope that the scholarship Fund and the RVN organisation will bring about more opportunities for students in Vietnam to bring into play their talent and contribute to national development, especially in terms of science and technology.
Talking about their learning and working process in France, beneficiaries of the RVN - Vallet scholarships expressed their gratitude to Van, his French colleague Professor Odon Vallet, and the RVN organisation for supporting them.
In 1993, Van and his wife returned to Vietnam to hold the first RVN programme, which attracted hundreds of famous physicists from around the world. One year later, the RVN Scholarship Fund was set up at their initiative with the aim of encouraging and assisting young talents who are outstanding students of Vietnam, particularly those with disadvantages or coming from ethnic minorities or remote areas.
Attending a scholarship presentation ceremony in 2000, Odon Vallet, a professor of history and religion at Sorbonne University, expressed his wish to join Van in contributing to this scholarship fund. Touched by Vallet’s action, Van decided to rename the fund RVN-Vallet.
For the last more than 20 years, RVN-Vallet has been the largest non-governmental scholarship fund and also the one operating for the longest period of time in Vietnam. It has presented nearly 40,000 scholarships worth over 350 billion VND (15 million USD) in total to students and young researchers of Vietnam so far.
