Mr. Thomas Vallely receives Phan Chau Trinh Award 2014

On March 24, 2014, Mr. Thomas Vallely, Chairman of the Trust for University Innovation in Vietnam (TUIV) was awarded the Phan Chau Trinh Prize for his outstanding contributions to Vietnam's higher education.

Mr. Vallely was founder of the Vietnam Program at Harvard Kennedy School. He had established and developed the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program for the past 20 years. And now together with the Fulbright School colleagues and TUIV board members, he is leading the effort of launching the new Fulbright University in Vietnam.

Photo: Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation

Below is an excerpt from the writer Nguyen Ngoc’s remarks on Mr. Thomas J. Vallely.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear Thomas Vallely,

I am sure you all notice that I intentionally mention Mr. Thomas, the dearest Tommy of ours, of us lastly in this speech. This is a technique that the writer wants to use to make a strong impression at the ending of the speech as he delivers it. That Thomas Vallely appears among the list of new laureates this evening is indeed a strong impression about the Phan Chau Trinh Cultural Prize 2014. I will not repeat what deemed to be great, important and profound that Thomas has done for Vietnam since the end of the war. I just want to say that we and us are and will certainly be filled with surprise of how he comes to understand Vietnam that much, at such a detailed and deep, thorough and fundamental degree that has kept him persistent for the past 30 years relentlessly bringing to Vietnam the two dire things that she needs for her recovery, renaissance, development and integration into today’s world. Those are the most important and fundamental things: an economic reform toward a true market, and a thorough and underlying educational reform. Everything he has done for nearly 30 years, be it at long-term macro and strategic level or daily, specific, micro work, he has been aggressively aiming at these two goals. What he did for Vietnam not only brought us specific and significant results, but of greater importance those results also help direct our thoughts and actions…we are surprised at the level of Thomas’ appreciation of Phan Chau Trinh, the greatest ideologist and cultural figure of Vietnam in the twentieth century whose thoughts are still modern in today reality. Mr. Thomas, allows me to disclose that, as far as we are concerned, you never accepted any reward neither from Vietnamese nor US agencies or organizations. Yet when it comes to this Prize of the Phan Chau Trinh Cultural Foundation, you happily embrace it. We see through this acceptance your original sharing with us, with this cultural organization, the great ideas of the precursor whose unfinished career in the last century we all want to continue.

Thank you Tommy for everything.