The Hanoi IUCr Visiting Professorship 1993

Hanoi Crystallography School Class of 1992, Colin Kennard, left of center with Lecong Dzuaong on his right.

Two and a half decades ago, an Australian Prime Minister H. Holt told the US President at the time that he "was all the way with LBJ" re: the Vietnamese War. In fact, young male Australians were conscripted to fight. Many lost their lives. Others were affected emotionally, with their own history reflecting that of US veterans. Australia has served as home for tens of thousands of boat people who have braved not only the weather but the latent racism in the country and have helped change the image of Australia to that of an Asian country rather than a European one. The TET offensive was 25 years ago, and now Australian television has featured many documentaries and dramas of that war, and the interested locals know what the country is really like today. It was with this background I landed in Hanoi representing the Teaching Commission of the International Union of Crystallography as a visiting professor. It should be pointed out that I am no foreigner to this part of the world, and have been involved with the Teaching Commission in Sri Lanka, India, China, and Thailand.

My initial problem was to get a visa. Like a number of countries going through a revolution, the old ways die hard. It took many letters, phone calls, and faxes before an official letter was sent by Hanoi U. to me, which was immediately used with success with the local embassy. However, some pressure was applied by both the President of the IUCr, A. Authier and O. Tangberg of the ICSU to hurry up the process.

My fears soon disappeared when I was greeted at the airport by Dzuong, and his secretary, who was suitably dressed in an ao dai, the Vietnamese costume, and in traditionally Asian manner she handed me a beautiful bunch of flowers, so unlike an Oz welcome. Then the usual hair raising drive to Hanoi and the hotel which was 3 km from the centre. The next day, we had the usual formal meetings with officials, and the usual exchange of visiting cards. Then the program was planned. My form of transport around Hanoi was a pillion passenger on a Honda scooter (50 cc), cruising like a surfboard rider through the continuous waves of trucks, buses, carts, cycles, and other scooters.

I had a group of 40 students, mostly post-graduates, with the younger ones having a knowledge of English, the older ones Russian, German, Chinese, or French. I lectured in Oz (Australian) English, and they seemed to understand. I made extensive use of pre-written transparencies or viewgraphs. These were successful, but unfortunately they needed a constant source of electricity which was not always available (though the projectors were good). I had made handouts, which the locals soon photocopied and distributed. Most Asian countries seem to excel in doing this at extremely low cost, and this gave all students some text to refer to. We went through the tutorials which were done depending on the keenness of the student. Some took them seriously and got a lot out of the exercise. Perhaps the others found my English difficult. The computer tutorials were very successful, and both Apple and IBM clones were used. I was always well served by soft drinks, hot tea, and exceptionally strong coffee. However, chalk crumbled when used on the corrugated blackboard surface.

As part of an IUCr custom, all students were given an IUCr certificate of attendance commemorating the course. In return they gave me a doll wearing an ao dai.

In my time at the Hanoi National U. of Technology, I did not see any scientific equipment working, and some were actually out of action. No X-ray generators were functioning, and in fact there was one enormous German Weissenberg camera still in its original packing case. This is once again a common feature of equipment in many Asian (and Australian) laboratories I have visited. The country was until recently a colony of the USSR. In fact the university was modelled on a USSR designed university for India. Most books had been supplied to the library during the colonial time, and with the changing fortunes of their donor country, the library was devoid of any new publications. This is also a common feature of most third world countries. J. Glusker has sent a couple of her books to Dzuong, and these were greatly appreciated. I think that these types of gifts should be encouraged. This is something the ACA and IUCr should look into. A sad feature about Vietnam is the difficulty to communicate with the country. Mail takes a long time. FAX works providing you can get a phone line. From Hanoi it costs $12 a page and is really too expensive considering that might be nearly a month's wage. Phone also works, but I never tried it.

I think one of the solutions for these types of countries is to develop international e-mail. We in the never never of Australia are really in touch with everyone in the world. In Australia, the government picks up the tab. If the "richer" nations could provide finance to support e-mail in the "poorer" countries, a significant number of their problems could be overcome. There were 286, 386, and 486 computers at the university. As in most countries, they were used for games, word processing, and some programming. If these could be hooked into an international network as terminals, they could be used to search the literature for references, retrieve papers, search databases, and to seek expert views on crystallographic problems. In fact interactive international tutorial classes could easily be held. Recent developments by P. Beurskens, G. Sheldrick, and S. Hall indicate that a 486/50 computer, selling for about $5,000, will be good enough to solve most crystallographic problems. Other difficulties concern equipment. It is important that scientific equipment be maintained, and this requires a trained workforce. This is where IUCr could play a leading role. I hope my brief stay plays a part in starting this process.

Most experts consider Vietnam an emerging tiger, after Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Vietnam is a country with a bright future. It is now saddled with a lack of capital, poor communication with its former enemy (USA), low wages, and very little infrastructure such as rail, road, and telecommunications. The country suffers from serious inflation with the largest note being 10,000 Dong which is about $1 US. However, the country is quite beautiful, as is the city of Hanoi, a gracious but busy French Provincial Centre, which even boasts steam trains.

I would like to thank A. Authier and J. Glusker for encouraging me to take this adventure. I also thank my hosts who went out of their way to show me their country, their culture, and their people. They include L. Dzuong and D.M. Nghiep of Hanoi National U. of Technology and T.T. Dung of Hanoi U. who drove the motor scooter.

Gifts of books and reprints may be sent to Dr. L. Dzuong, Materials Science Center, Hanoi Polytechnical Institute, Truong DH Bachkhoa Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam.