From a Vietnamese boy working in the fields to a famous professor in America

From a boy selling cigarettes on the street and working as a hired hand, with his own determination and effort, Truong Nguyen Thanh became a lecturer at a famous university in the US.

Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh was born in 1961, the third child in a poor family of 7 siblings. As a child, Thanh was adopted by his grandparents in Binh Dinh for the sake of "family happiness", while his parents lived in Saigon to make a living. Life became even more difficult when Thanh's father became paralyzed on one side in 1972. All the difficulties fell on his mother's shoulders. During this time, Thanh was taken from Binh Dinh to Saigon by his mother.

Loving his mother, Thanh sold cigarettes outside of school hours to earn money to treat his father's illness and take care of his siblings. Although he was only 11 years old, Thanh had to wander around the streets of Saigon from noon to night, sometimes enduring the rain and sun, "where is home at night, where is bed to sleep".

Four years later, his family moved from Saigon to Lai Thieu (Binh Duong), with their only assets being a small plot of land and a pair of buffaloes. From selling cigarettes on the street, Thanh switched to working as a hired hand. The 15-year-old boy could do any job to make a living, from plowing, herding buffaloes to growing potatoes.

Studying was not a concern because Thanh thought ""Poor families must earn a living first." Compared to his peers, Thanh's face and thoughts are more mature. Instead of playing with friends, he takes on the responsibility of taking care of food and clothing for his mother and siblings. He himself built a house of mud mixed with straw so that his family would have a place to shelter from the rain and sun.

At that time, Thanh was considered a mischievous, stubborn child, but above all, he was a filial and very affectionate boy.One time, when his younger brother had a fever and was afraid of dehydration, he ran to the neighbor's house to pull up cassava roots, not knowing that it was an act of theft. Thanh was caught, tied up and locked up by the cassava warehouse owner despite his best efforts to plead.

"Alone and tied up in the dark, scared and desperate, I wondered what I had done to deserve this miserable life. I vowed to myself that I would succeed, and if I did, I would give that opportunity to others," he recalled.

After that, Thanh focused more on studying, but he still spent most of his time working as a hired hand to earn a living. His best subject was math.

Thanh's academic path only really turned a new page when he was in 12th grade and "caught the eye" of his math teacher.During one class, this teacher gave some tricky lessons to the whole class, leaving the good students clueless. Thanh - the "smallest" student in the class stood up to answer, surprising the teacher and his classmates.

Then, the teacher called the poor, lazy student to stay and said: "You are so smart, why don't you study hard?" Thanh replied: "I still have to work to earn a living, my poor family doesn't have money to buy books, sir." Hearing that, the teachergave Thanh some math books and told him: "Read the books like you read stories. Next month"The provincial excellent student competition, I really want you to go."

The teacher's words surprised Thanh because he never thought he would be in the team of excellent students. Ignoring the teacher's words, Thanh went home and started to earn a living again. It was not until 9 pm that he lit the oil lamp to read books. As a result, he was selected by the teacher to be in the national math competition team, but due to his poor conduct, the principal did not choose Thanh. The math teacher once again arbitrarily sent Thanh to the province to study specialized math for 3 months and was surprised when Thanh entered the top 5.

Since then, he has become more confident in himself and spent more time studying. "Until now, I still remember and thank my math teacher, because thanks to him, my education has changed," he said.

Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh. Photo: bioscience.old.utah.edu

He passed the entrance exam to the Saigon Polytechnic University, but after a few months he dropped out and went to America with his two younger brothers in 1980. In a foreign land, not knowing English, the two brothers had to live a life of wandering, often hiding in a temple at night to sleep. Sometimes the temple was closed and the two brothers had to sleep outside in the cold. Every night, his younger brother would ask "Where are you sleeping tonight?" which made his heart ache and he thought: "Are you here to die or live?" Until one day, a farmer's family adopted the two brothers, and they finally had a proper meal.

To continue his studies, he took the entrance exam to a high school in the US. The language barrier made it difficult for him to complete the program. The principal said that university was very difficult for him and recommended him to work at a grocery store to earn money right away.

"In Vietnam, I was a farmer, but in America, I went through so many hardships and difficulties to work at a grocery store." Thinking so, he asked his teacher to let him continue studying and promised to try his best. Finally, his own determination helped him enter his first year.University of North Dakota.

Unlike students who often work part-time at bars or as waiters in restaurants to pay for their tuition, he boldly asked his professor to let him work in the lab - something that not all students dare to do. He also borrowed money from student loans and government scholarships to pursue his passion.

After graduating from university with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, he had four scientific articles published in prestigious international journals. He then went straight to his doctorate and received his degree in 1990, then continued his postdoctoral research. During this time, he won a National Science Foundation scholarship for young potential doctors.

In 1992, he was invited to teach quantum chemistry atUniversity of Utah. He is considered one of the most promising young scientists in the US, and has been awarded a senior professorship. From 1992 to present, Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh has had about 200 articles published in international scientific journals.

Talking about his own success, Professor Thanh said that besides ability, passion, determination and environment for development, it is important to be aware of opportunities. "If I had listened to the principal and worked at a grocery store, I might have had a car and a big house, but I chose to work in a bookstore to pursue a research career. I really made the right choice."

True to his wish of "success will help others", the professor returned to Vietnam and established the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Computational Science and Technology in 2009. He also helped many excellent students from Vietnam to study abroad in the US using his research fund.

"Success is a journey, not a destination. If you want to succeed, you have to know how to pay the price. I don't want to say what I have achieved, it's just a path that when I look back, I see I have gone very far" is the famous question that Professor Thanh wants to tell all young people in Vietnam.

According to VNE