Viet Nam News
HA NOI — Journalist Ham Chau, who was famous for writing profiles of outstanding Vietnamese and foreign scientists, died of a stroke in Ha Noi on Monday. He was 83 years old.
Born into an intellectual family in the central province of Nghe An, he graduated from National Economics University but chose to become a journalist.
With a high command of three foreign languages — including Chinese, Russia and English — and a deep knowledge of science, he was equipped with the skills to connect with and share the stories of scientists in well-written articles.
During his long career, he worked for several different publications.
After working as a reporter at the Ha Noi Moi (New Ha Noi) newspaper, he was editor-in-chief of To Quoc (Motherland) magazine. He was also in charge of the Nhan Dan newspaper (weekend issue) and English-language magazine Vietnam Cultural Window.
Even though he wrote about different topics, his most famous articles were about science and education.
He wrote more than 2,500 articles, published 10 books under his name and co-published 23 books with other authors, including a 1,200-page book titled Tri Thuc Tinh Hoa Viet Nam Duong Dai (Viet Nam’s Contemporary Intellectuals).
His latest book, which he recently finished, is titled Anh Sang Nhan Van Trong The Gioi Cac Nha Vat ly (Humane Light in the World of Physicists).
This 830-page literary chronicle, rich with interesting observations and emotion, talks about the important international scientific meetings he joined in Viet Nam and different countries around the world, as well as the portraits of scientists who won Nobel prizes and world-renowned scientists of Vietnamese origin.
Nguyen Tu Uyen, Ham Chau’s son, said his father lived alone in Ha Noi in order to have ideal conditions for finishing his book. He had planned to move to HCM City to live with his son after publishing his book.
Ham Chau was close to Professor Tran Thanh Van, founder of Meeting Viet Nam, which held meetings aimed at creating opportunities for Vietnamese scientists to access advanced science and network with famous scientists from around the world, as well as encourage young Vietnamese scholars’ scientific studies and inventions. Ham Chau also accompanied Prof Van to different regions of the country when Van offered Vallet scholarships to Vietnamese students, along with the support of Professor Odon Vallet of France’s Sorbonne University.
“Journalist Ham Chau became close to us in 1993 when he was reporting on the first Meeting Vietnam. I never met such a journalist who was so passionate about science,” Van said.
“The country lost a devoted journalist who gave himself to the country’s science development. We will never have such a devoted journalist who has such profound knowledge of science like him.”
Van said that just a few days ago, he had discussed with Ham Chau a plan to offer scholarships to students. On Monday, when they sent him airplane tickets, they also received the news of his death.
“I do not know how much this news will sadden Prof Odon Vallet, because during each trip to offer scholarships to students, Chau used to sit close to Prof Vallet and tell him stories about the culture, history and people of different regions of Viet Nam where we passed through,” he said. “Vallet appreciated Chau a lot and was very interested in his stories.” — VNS