Lê Văn Thiêm was born in 1918 at Trung Lễ Commune, Đức Thọ District, Hà Tĩnh Province, to an intellectual family. He was the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters. After the death of his parents in 1930, he moved to live with his older brother in Quy Nhơn and attended the Collège de Quy Nhơn,[citation needed] where Thiêm stood out in science and mathematics. Within four years, he had completed the 9-year education (equivalent to K-12 system of the US) and went to University of Indochina for his higher education. Because of the humble scale of the university at that moment, no Math course was offered. Therefore, he enrolled in the PCB (Physics-Chemistry-Biology) class.
In 1939, after passing the final term examination excellently, Thiêm was offered a scholarship to study at École Normale Supérieure. His education was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, and only continues in 1941. He graduated with bachelor's degree of Mathematics within a year, rather than the conventional 3-year time. Under the direction of Professor Georges Valiron, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation successfully in Germany at 1945 and then moved to the University of Zurich where he met and worked with Rolf Herman Nevanlinna for some years.[4] His contributions in Paris and Zurich placed him among the best researchers in mathematics in the 1940s.
In 1970 he became the first director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics.[5] Later, he founded and was first editor-in-chief of two of Vietnam's Mathematical Journals: Acta Mathematica Vietnamica (in Latin) and Vietnam Journal of Mathematics (in English). He was the host of Neal Koblitz in his lectures in Vietnam.[6]
A scholarship for Young Vietnamese Mathematics Talents was named after him. He was the first Modern Mathematician of Vietnam to have his name used for a street (in Hanoi).
Further reading
Ha Huy Khoai: « On contemporary mathematics in Vietnam », in Eberhard Knobloch, Hikosaburo Komatsu, Dun Liu (éd.): « Seki, Founder of Modern Mathematics in Japan: A Commemoration on his Tercentenary », Springer 2013, page 376.
^Koblitz, Neal (2007). Random Curves: Journeys of a Mathematician. Springer-Verlag. p. 176. ISBN9783540740780.; "When Lê Văn Thiêm returned to Hanoi, he used his car and driver to take us around town for one day. He and Khoái went with us first to Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature), founded in 1076. The remains of the ancient university feature an array of 82 large stone slabs, each containing a list of winners in the royal examinations..."
