NASA scientist - first Vietnamese raising national flag at South Pole

Ha Noi - Nguyen Trong Hien, who has a DSc in physics, now is working for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). His claim to fame was the first Vietnamese raising the national flag at the South Pole.

Hiep first thought of flying the Vietnamese flag at the South Pole during his first study excursion there in 1992. On his second visit, in December 1993, he was able to complete his dream. Hien said he still fells happy every time he recalls how he put up the red and gold star flag and watched it fly in the wind besides the flags of other nations in the negative 60 degree centigrade temperature.

Now a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hien keeps close contact with Viet Nam's Astronomy and Space Association, research institutes, and especially the physics faculty at the Ha Noi Pedagogic University.

He is working to set up a physics training centre in Viet Nam while developing a long-term cooperation programme with Vietnamese researchers.

Since 1993, Hien has regularly returned to his homeland. He has attended three International Physics Conferences titled "Meeting Viet Nam" at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Van, a French Vietnamese, who was co-chairman of the conference.

Arriving in the US in 1981, Hien graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, then earned a doctor degree in cosmic background radiation at the Princeton University and did postdoctoral research in physics and astronomy at the University of Chicago.