Professor cum Doctor Nguyen Dang Hung has decided to return to Vietnam to contribute to the development of education after years living abroad with several twists and turns. For him, this is the way of adding more flavours the life.

Born in 1941 in Quang Nam Province, he has spent half of his life living and working in different countries. However, the image of Vietnam and his poor countryside has always been deep in his heart.

In 1960, Nguyen Dang Hung was one of three excellent Vietnamese students to win scholarships to study in the University of Liège, Belgium. After graduation, he, a young engineer in aerospace, was selected to be a two-year postgraduate student and then invited to work for a research center.

In 1977, he was the first Vietnamese-Belgian to return to Vietnam to deliver a scientific speech. Since then, he has raised funds from Francophone countries and the Government of Belgium for research and training projects. Since 1990, around US $20,000 from this fund was spent yearly for Vietnamese students to do master degrees in Belgium.

He has nurtured a dream of contributing to the scientific development of Vietnam.

In 1995, he established Vietnam-Belgium Post-Graduate Center in the University of Technology in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Since then, professors from Belgium offer lectures for 35 students each year.

He has also promoted a training program for 50 doctors under national scholarships. Under this program, students can study both in Vietnam and Europe. This could prevent the brain drain while they still learn advanced technologies.

Speaking about his love of the home country of Vietnam, he simply said that his childhood was attached to children tending buffalos. He thought that good students learnt from good teachers, secondary school students learnt from high-school students, thus the Vietnamese young generation would be trained well.

On each return to Vietnam, Hung never forgot to visit his parents’ graves in the countryside to offer incense to them and his ancestors.

Aged 70, he desires to return Vietnam. “I dream one day, my relatives living overseas will reunite in the home country of Vietnam. After my death, I would like to be burned and part of my ash will lie along the river in my countryside of Quang Nam Province”, he confided.

Hung also has hobbies of composing music and poems and caring for plants. He has so far composed more than 30 Vietnamese songs reflecting his deep love for the home country.

Source: SGTT

Translated by Mai Huong