Vietnamese-born mathematician Ngo Bao Chau became the first Vietnamese person ever to win the Fields Medal. The Fields Medal is considered the Nobel Prize in mathematics since the Nobel doesn’t have a mathematics category–if there were ever a prize for pure logical muscle, I think this is it. You’ve gotta be really smart to win it. 
Ngo, who was born in Hanoi in 1972 in the waning years of the Vietnam war, was cited for his “brilliant proof” of a 30-year-old mathematical conundrum known as the Fundamental Lemma.
The proof offered a key stepping stone to establishing and exploring a revolutionary theory put forward in 1979 by Canadian-American mathematician Robert Langlands that connected two branches of mathematics called number theory and group theory.
It’s funny because whenever I hear of successful Vietnamese people, I automatically think of refugees and people who immigrated under the misfortune of war and loss. It looks like Ngo actually was raised in Vietnam.
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But here is an...
Malcolm Gladwell offered an interesting theory in his book Outliers explaining why Asians are good at math.
in other news, Fundamental Lemma is buzzed up 36% today
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Mathematicians are amazing people. They understand shit no one else does, so are physicist.
i/m vnese n so pround of my country when I know this////// 2morrow, my school ‘ll have a chance to see him…… can/t wait till////////VN fighting