23-year-old Vietnamese-American PhD student becomes judge of International Math Olympiad

In the capital Bucharest (Romania), the name Tran Bach Hai is no longer strange.

In 2013, Hai participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad as one of six members of the Romanian team. In that year’s competition, Hai was the only contestant of foreign origin.

Hai's parents are both of Vietnamese origin. Hai's father, Tran Van Lu, is originally from Nghe An. He was a Vietnamese student in Romania from 1975 to 1981. After returning home, he continued to work at the Design Institute under the Ministry of Construction.

But the economic difficulties in the 90s made him and his wife decide to return to Romania once again to start a business. That is why Romania is Hai's birthplace and second home.

Tran Bach Hai graduated with honors from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Michigan (USA).

Hai is the first son. Mr. Lu himself never thought his son would become a mathematician, let alone do anything great.

At the age of 6 or 7, Hai gradually showed his ability to memorize and analyze logic quite well. On his birthday, a friend of Mr. Lu gave Hai 2 sets of lego consisting of 240 pieces. Without looking at the model, in less than 30 minutes, Hai was able to complete the set. Even when his friend mixed the 2 sets of lego together, Hai was still able to complete the set. From that moment, Mr. Lu began to pay attention to his son's thinking ability.

Instead of choosing a specialized school, Mr. Lu went to find a good teacher for his child.

“Hai's teacher had just graduated and had moved from the countryside to the city to find work. But he was extremely passionate about his job. He said that Hai was a boy with the ability to learn Math." - Mr. Lu said.

It was this teacher who encouraged Hai to participate in competitions to assess his level of mathematical development. From then on, the Vietnamese father began to look for competitions in Bucharest and neighboring provinces within a radius of 300 kilometers. Wherever there were competitions, Mr. Lu took his son to participate. Notably, in any competition, Hai always achieved good results.

Hai has won more than 40 medals in regional and international competitions.

To date, Hai has won more than 40 medals at regional and international competitions. Mr. Lu himself cannot remember all the awards his son has won.

“Mathematics is Hai's true passion. From grade 6 onwards, Romania has a national mathematics competition. Therefore, from grade 6 to grade 12, he won Gold Medals at Romania's National Mathematics Olympiads." - Mr. Lu said.

In addition, Hai won a Gold Medal at the Asian Mathematical Olympiad in the Philippines; a Gold Medal at the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad for Juniors (JBMO); a Silver Medal at the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad (BMO); ...

As a foreigner, Mr. Lu said, Hai himself had to work extremely hard to be able to join the Romanian team to participate in the international competition.

“Many times I was left out of the team, not because of my poor ability, but because of political reasons. It was not until I was in 11th grade that I was able to join the team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. That year, the head of the Romanian delegation mistranslated the questions, so the team's performance declined. Luckily, I still won a Bronze medal.”.

With his achievements, Hai was accepted for doctoral training by many leading universities in the US. However, the Vietnamese-American man decided to pursue a doctoral program in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Chicago.

Hai said he decided to choose Statistics because of its endless applications.In a world where data is growing exponentially, learning how to make sense of it is essential. In addition, a very hot field right now is “Machine Learning”, which is the core algorithms of most current AI programs. So I decided to choose to study this field.”.

Last July, Hai was personally invited by the head of the Romanian delegation to be a member of the Judging Panel in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Sharing about this opportunity, Hai said: “In 2013, I was a contestant in the International Mathematical Olympiad. This time, being invited back as a judge of the competition gave me the opportunity to meet old friends who are still persistently pursuing mathematics all over the world.”

Hai was invited to be a judge for the International Mathematical Olympiad.

“In this competition, Vietnam has affirmed its position in the international arena by continuously entering the top 15. The medals have shown that Vietnam has many truly talented and gifted students,” Hai shared.

Despite being a Romanian citizen, the Vietnamese-American man still hopes to return to Vietnam when he turns 40. “Romania has given me many things and I have strived to bring glory to this country. There are still many things in the world for me to explore and learn. I will continue to travel and experience. When I turn 40, when I feel that everything is enough, I will return to Vietnam.”

The family of Mr. Tran Van Lu and Ms. Bach Thi Ha has three sons who are all excellent students in Romania. Their second son is named Tran Bach Lam (born in 1999). During his high school years, Lam won 2 Gold and Silver medals at the National Olympiad in Computer Science and Programming.

The third son, Tran Bach Nguyen (born in 2013), is no less excellent than his two older brothers. Nguyen is currently one of the “golden” factors of the Romanian national team. Although he started school nearly 2 years earlier than his friends, Nguyen is always at the top of the team.

Early last July, he participated in the Math Olympiad held in Russia and won a Gold Medal. In addition, Nguyen was also awarded the Best Essay Award by the Organizing Committee.

Nguyen also won many Gold medals at the National Math and Informatics Olympiads; Gold and Silver medals at the Balkan Regional Math Olympiad.