From village teacher to national math award winner

Mathematics begins with life

For teacher Nguyen Van Thang (40 years old, Quan Hanh Secondary School, Nghi Loc District), his relationship with the profession of "teaching and cultivating people" is destiny... Many years ago, student Nguyen Van Thang always dreamed of becoming an engineer in the future, building great works. However, the economic conditions of a poor farming family in Nghi Dien Commune did not allow Thang to pursue his dream. In 2003, he sadly withdrew his application from a university in Hanoi, returning to study Mathematics Education at Vinh University. Teacher Nguyen Van Thang was forced to choose the Pedagogy major...

Perhaps teaching was not Nguyen Van Thang's first choice. However, once he decided, he always tried his best to do the best and go the farthest. During his years as a student, Thang constantly tried to learn knowledge and improve his skills to become a good teacher. In addition to studying at school, he actively worked as a tutor to support his parents and also to improve his profession... Therefore, right after graduating from university, teacher Nguyen Van Thang was accepted to work at a school near his home.

Becoming a "village teacher", teacher Nguyen Van Thang diligently devoted himself to the career of educating people; constantly inspiring and arousing the passion for Mathematics of many generations of students... "Mathematics originates from natural and physical phenomena; social phenomena and real life", teacher Thang conveyed and kindled the thinking about Mathematics for his students like that.

“There is no student who is weak in Math, the problem is whether the Math teacher is dedicated and has given the students the proper attention or not? Students will be motivated to study well if they receive timely encouragement. A good teacher is someone who devotes all his heart and energy to his students,” said Mr. Thang. With such a view on Mathematics and the teaching profession, over the past 17 years, “village teacher” Nguyen Van Thang has quietly nurtured sweet fruits.

Mr. Thang is not proud of his personal titles, but he is always proud of his students. Over the years, his students have achieved many titles of excellent students at all levels. There have been students who won valedictorians, first, second, and third prizes in provincial excellent student competitions such as Truong Xuan Thong (valedictorian of provincial excellent students in Mathematics in the 2018-2019 school year)... "Good news travels fast", many parents in neighboring areas such as Vinh city and Cua Lo town have come to Mr. Thang to ask for help in further tutoring their children in Mathematics.

Passion for "reverse problems"

Besides his passion for teaching, Mr. Thang is also passionate about researching Mathematics. Nurturing that passion, he has constantly tried to study and became a doctor of Mathematics in 2019. Starting from 2013, with the guidance of his teachers, the help and support of colleagues, Nguyen Van Thang has entered the field of research on Mathematics and gradually achieved success with many articles and works published in international specialized Mathematics journals. There are works in which Mr. Thang is a co-author and there are also works in which Mr. Thang is the subject.

The field that Mr. Nguyen Van Thang focuses on is the "Inverse Problem" (also known as the Inverse Problem). The Inverse Problem starts with the result and then the calculation process to find the causal factors based on the set of observations of the quantities. The "Inverse Problem" is one of the most important problems in science and mathematics because it tells us about parameters that cannot be directly observed. The "Inverse Problem" has wide applications in optics, acoustics, communication theory, signal processing, medical imaging, computers, oceanography, astronomy, natural language processing and many other fields.

Among the many studies that Mr. Thang participated in, there are two very typical works: "Stability results of time-reversed fractional parabolic equations" and "Time-reversed semilinear parabolic equations with time-dependent coefficients and local Lipschitz sources" (both of these works were published in Inverse Problems Magazine - the number one magazine in the field of "Inverse Problems" in the world in 2018 and 2019)...

The application of the two works in life is very large. With the "reverse-time semi-linear Parabolic equation with time-dependent coefficients and local Lipschitz sources" has optimized the speed of the process of determining the temperature at a certain time in the past through the measured temperature at the present time or determining the transmission of pollutants in an underground water area...

In 2019, the work "Stability results of time-reversed fractional parabolic equations" was awarded by the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (Ministry of Education and Training). In 2023, the work "Time-reversed semilinear parabolic equations with time-dependent coefficients and local Lipschitz sources" (by the group of authors Nguyen Van Duc - Vinh University and Nguyen Van Thang - Quan Hanh Secondary School) was awarded the Second Prize in the 2023 Outstanding Mathematical Work Award by the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics.

It is known that this is a very prestigious award within the national key program for the development of Mathematics approved by the Prime Minister since 2010 with the goal of improving the level and position of Vietnamese Mathematics in the international arena. In the period 2010-2020, the selection and awarding of Mathematics works published in prestigious international journals is held once a year. In the period 2021-2030, the award for outstanding Mathematics works is awarded every 3 years. In 2023, there were 35 award-winning works nationwide.

At this time, he is still working hard on his research and has some projects that are in the process of being reviewed before being published... Having received prestigious national awards in Mathematics and being invited to work at several universities, teacher Thang is still content with his life as a "village teacher". "I am passionate about research and I also love my teaching job and my school. I just think simply, where I am or what position I hold is not important; what is important is that I try to contribute to my homeland and country", teacher Thang confided.