More than 500 outstanding students from 58 high schools and six SOS children's villages in the north receive Vallet scholarships at a ceremony in Hanoi on August 26.

Prof. Odon Vallet, Vallet Scholarship sponsor; Prof. Tran Thanh Van, Chairman of the Science and Education Association “Meeting Vietnam in France” and his wife, Prof. Le Kim Ngoc attended the ceremony and awarded scholarships to the outstanding students.

Prof. Van said “I hope that the scholarship winners today will continue their efforts on the path of learning and success, rising to become the leading scientists, and contribute to the country’s development.”

This year’s scholarships had two types: 10.5 million VND (450 USD) and 18 million VND (770 USD) each.

This year is the 19th year that the Vallet Scholarship has been awarded in the country. During the past 19 years, more than 35,000 Vallet scholarships have been awarded to Vietnamese students.

They were excellent students in urban areas, children of poor families in remote areas in Mekong Delta and northern mountainous provinces.

In France, also from 2000, Prof. Odon Vallet, through the introduction of Prof. Van and Prof. Ngoc, gave over 100 scholarships to Vietnamese students living and studying in France.

Born in Vietnam’s central Quang Binh province in 1936, Prof. Van studied in central Thua Thien-Hue province and then travelled to France to continue his studies there. He held a doctorate in physics in 1963 with his scheme on the structure of protons and quarks. He was also one of three Asians awarded the Tate Order by the US Physics Association in 2012. VNA