Under the approval of Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (VINATOM), Nuclear Training Center (NTC) together with Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union held the talk show “Innovation and the roles of the youth in scientific research and technology transfer” to celebrate the anniversary of Vietnam Science and Technology Day on May 17th 2017 at the hall of NTC, 140 Nguyen Tuan, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi.
Attending the talk show were PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh – President of VINATOM; PhD. NGUYEN Hao Quang – Vice- President of VINATOM; PhD. Trinh Van Giap – Party Committee Secretary of VINATOM and Director of the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technique (INST); leaders of the Institute for Technology of Radioactive & Rare Elements (ITRRE), Non-Destructive Evaluation Center (NDE), Irradiation Center of Hanoi. On the guest side was Assoc. PHAM Duc Khue – Director of the Center for Nuclear Physics, Institute of Physics, especially with the participation of Prof. PHAM Duy Hien – former Vice President of VINATOM; and young researchers from the units under VINATOM in the North of Vietnam.
“Innovation towards Enterprises” by Assoc. Prof. LE Thi Mai Huong – Vice-President of ITRRE
The talk show was consisted of two parts. The first part included three speeches: “Innovation towards Enterprises” by Assoc. Prof. LE Thi Mai Huong – Vice-President of ITRRE, “Research orientation and support for young staff of VINATOM” by PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh, along with the speech of PhD. TRINH Van Giap. The second part is the discussion among leaders, leading scientists, and young staff of VINATOM.
With the theme “Innovation towards Business,” Assoc. Prof. LE Thi Mai Huong shared the innovation process as a self-process that requires a spirit of ready-to-go, ready-to-change, ready-to-pursue the creativity. Creative ideas can be aroused from a variety of sources, including unsystematic sources such as from inspirations, by chance, or from everyday life, and systematic ones such as from previous studies, from theoretical inquiry or through lectures. When it comes to new ideas, the next step is to turn these ideas into reality and stick to the business. And this is the most arduous and challenging phase for researchers, which requires a great deal of effort and dedication.
With the theme “Research orientation and support for young staff of VINATOM“, PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh emphasized that the concept of innovation is the innovation in thinking and being proactive in scientific research. With regard to the orientation of VAEC, the Institute always creates the best possible conditions for young cadres to develop their abilities and supports them in attending the International Scientific Conference. With more than 130 young people aged 35 and below, VINATOM has a large number of young staff, whose future is of paramount importance and will become the key personnel of Vietnam atomic energy sector. PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh expressed his hope that the younger generation will continue to strive for learning from the next generation, cultivate research skills, teamwork skills and foreign languages, and especially actively connect to the world, to improve themselves and shoulder the important tasks of the Institute in the future.
“Research orientation and support for young staff of VINATOM” by PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh
In his speech, PhD. TRINH Van Giap mentioned to “passion” as one of the indispensable elements for a scientific researcher, especially for energetic and young staff. He expressed the hope that young researchers need to continue to develop and improve their teamwork skills and identify their roles in the field they pursue.
PhD. TRINH Van Giap at the Talkshow
The discussion among young cadres and the leaders and leading scientists of VINATOM was open and frank. The prominent questions from the youth included: 1) “How do previous generations transfer knowledge and experienced to the next generations?” by PhD. student NGUYEN Hoang Phuc, INST; 2) “How can young staff have access to materials that are the results of the previous research?” by LE Dinh Cuong, secretary of INST Communist Youth Union; 3) “Improving working environment for young researchers, especially more support from the administrative staff” by PhD. LE Xuan Chung; 4) “What do the leaders expect from the innovation of young staff so that they can do the right things as the leaders’ orientation?” by Ms. HA Lan Anh.
Upon the issue of knowledge transfer from the generation to generation, Assoc. Prof. NGUYEN Thi Kim Dung shared: scientific research is not similar to ordinary administrative work and it requires young people to have passion first, and then become more energetic and active in accessing, exchanging and learning knowledge from others. The previous generations are always available and open to transfer their knowledge. In order to maintain and strengthen the passion, every young person should seek for himself an image in scientific research so as to enhance his motivation, overcome obstacles and temptations from the environment around. Also, sharing on this issue, PhD. NGUYEN Hao Quang hoped young people to be more enthusiastic about engaging in research activities and experienced researchers to allow the youth to join into their research projects.
LE Dinh Cuong, secretary of INST Communist Youth Union, raised questions for VINATOM leaders
On the issue of “How can young staff have access to materials that are the results of the previous research?”,” PhD. NGUYEN Hao Quang said that VINATOM has also built an e-library to store the results of the project where everyone can access and search information. He also emphasized that scientific seminars are also a way for young professionals to seek more useful information of their concerns. On the other hand, PhD. TRAN Minh Quynh, Deputy Director of Hanoi Radiation Center, expected young people to be more active in seeking information through search engines via Internet or directly contact with the research authors. In the near future, Assoc. Prof. PHAM Duc Khue will share more than 300 documents / books on atomic energy in his collection with VINATOM, and is ready to assist young cadres in terms of this issue.
The working environment and supporting mechanisms to promote innovation and creativity for young staff are a matter that the leaders of VINATOM are concerned and trying to solve. Related to this issue, PhD. NGUYEN Hao Quang added that the Institute is currently facing many financial difficulties while the number of proposals is large. It is difficult to approve all the proposals. The selection of proposals is honestly evaluated by the professional councils.
Prof. PHAM Duy Hien shared with the young staff of VINATOM
As an enthusiastic scientist with Vietnam atomic energy sector, Prof. PHAM Duy Hien is always interested in and accepts invitations to attend seminars and talk show to exchange with young staff of the Institute. His sharing always contains sincerity, closeness, dedication and a great love for Vietnam Atomic Energy. In the talk show, Prof. PHAM Duy Hien frankly said that currently there is a lack of attention, mentoring and training for younger generation; VINATOM has many limitations in creating a good environment for young researchers to develop their abilities. Prof. Pham Duy Hien suggested that young people need to be more active in research work instead of passivity and lack of enthusiasm as now. Learning foreign languages is extremely important for young researchers as foreign language is a bridge that connects us to the world knowledge. Scientific and artistic works are similar regarding inspiration, so seek inspiration of creativity from the arts hobby such as reading books, literature, and music. In addition, he expressed his sympathy for the difficulties that the younger generation nowadays has to cope with, especially in terms of remuneration and compensation, but he hoped that with enthusiasm, the young researchers keep working hard to overcome all to for the future.
At the end of talk show, on behalf of the organizing committee, PhD. PHAM Ngoc Dong expressed his thanks to the leaders of VINATOM and other participants. In the upcoming plan, NTC will organize training courses on scientific research skills, journal writing skills and presentations in English with the leading lecturers such as Prof. PHAM Duy Hien, Prof. DAO Tien Khoa, PhD. TRAN Chi Thanh, Assoc. Prof. LE Thi Mai Huong and some other lecturers. NTC sincerely hope for the registration from all young staff of VINATOM.
PHAM Thi Thu Trang, MA. – Nuclear Training Center