Hanoi (VNA) - A new printed monthly Vietnamese magazine specializingin mathematics will be published from January 2017.

Abrain-child of noted math Prof Ngo Bao Chau, the magazine will run items in a"user friendly" format accessible to school and college students.

“Wemade a hard decision but we determined to publish such a printed magazinebecause we hope that students will wait for the day each month to buy theirfavourite publication,” Chau said.

Chauused the 15,000 USD cash prize he received with the 2010 Fields Medal, aninternational medal for outstanding discoveries in mathematics, as seed moneyfor the magazine.

Ittook three years for him and his colleagues at the Vietnam Mathematical Societyto prepare the contents and complete the administrative procedures to publishthe magazine.


TranNam Dung, a lecturer at HCM City National University, has already an onlineversion called Epsilon, 12 editions of which were published in the past twoyears. The latest editions were downloaded more than 10,000 times.

ToanHoc và Tuoi Tre (Math and Youth) was published over 50 years ago by theEducation Publishing House.

Thesociety has also run two magazines in English for researchers to publish theirarticles.

Atthe launch ceremony of the PI magazine on December 18, Prof Ha Huy Khoai, thepublication’s editor-in-chief, said the target audience is broader thanexisting math magazines. Its audience will range from students, teachers,university lecturers, math-lovers to even people who don’t like math.

“Itcontains a main column introducing modern views on classical math notions orclassical approaches to modern notions,” he said. “A column titled "CungBan Giai Toan" (Solving Math Problems with You) will guide readers how tosolve concrete math problems. The "Thach Thuc Toan Hoc" (MathsChallenge) column will be among the most anticipated column by people who likeovercoming challenges.”

Columnslike "Toan Hoc va Doi Song" (Maths and Life), "Quan Toan"(Maths Shop) and "Toan cua Bi " (Bi’s Maths) will bring fresh viewson maths, which is generally considered a somewhat "dry" subject.

ProfChau will act as deputy-editor-in-chief of the magazine, while the editorialboard includes leading math teachers in Vietnam, like Tran Van Nhung, Tran Nam Dung,Nguyen Tien Dung and Pham Huy Dien.

ProfChau was born into a Vietnamese family of scholars in 1972. At the age of 15,he was admitted into a class in the Vietnam National University High Schoolspecialising in mathematics.

Chaureceived gold medals at both the 29th and 30th International MathematicalOlympiad (IMO) in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

Hefinished his undergraduate study in France and began to research the LanglandsProgram as a postgraduate. He then proved the Fundamental Lemma of theLanglands Program in 2008.

Chau’sproof of the Fundamental Lemma in the theory of automorphic forms through theintroduction of new algebro-geometric methods has been listed as one of the topten scientific discoveries of 2009 by Time magazine.-VNA