Professor Hoang Xuan Han was born in 1908 in the central province of Ha Tinh. In 1930, after receiving a baccalaureate in mathematics, he passed the entrance exams to the Teachers' Training College and Polytechnic School in France. He received his civil engineer diploma in 1934, mathematics bachelor's degree in 1935 and mathematics master's degree in 1936. He then returned to Vietnam, teaching and conducting scientific research. In 1951, he settled in France and died there in 1996.

Professor Hoang Xuan Han is a great scholar who made great contributions to the national culture. His scientific research works left profound stamps on the fields of culture, science and education. Having lived for nearly a century, Professor Hoang Xuan Han did research on tens of trail-blazing scientific works.

He was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for a group of works on the history and calendar of Vietnam which include three works: 'Ly Thuong Kiet'; 'La Son Phu Tu' (La Mountain's Intellectual) and 'Calendar and Vietnamese Calendar.'

‘La Son Phu Tu’ introduces the secluded (but positive) life of intellectual Nguyen Thiep within the immoral context when the Trinh Lords ‘puppetised’ the Le Kings and the contacts between the great benevolent and intelligent Mentor with the pre-eminent hero Nguyen Hue who sought men of great talent and respected scholars.

'Calendar and Vietnamese Calendar' is a work of systematic study which reveals the true process of the use of the calendar in Vietnam through feudal regimes in interrelation with the Chinese calendar of the same periods.

‘Ly Thuong Kiet’ is a scientific work of great value. It not only speaks about Ly Thuong Kiet, the "greatest national hero in Vietnam’s history" with his immortal poem of declaration of independence, but also expands to the fields of politics, military and diplomacy in the Ly dynasty.

By LINH NAM