As long as you have strength, you can read and research.

  “Please come over to my house!” The gentle, warm words of Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan helped me dispel my anxiety about the gap between generations and knowledge.

Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan and his wife - Mrs. Thai Thi Thanh Mui (83 years old) - currently live in an apartment in Nghia Do New Urban Area ( Hanoi ). Contrary to my imagination, his apartment has a modest area, the working corner is neatly arranged in the bedroom with a small bookcase. As if reading my thoughts, Mrs. Thai Thi Thanh Mui proactively said: "My husband and I have just moved to live in an apartment. I know my husband is not very comfortable, because in his old house he had a personal "library" where he spent time studying every day. What my husband and I are struggling with now is how to bring that "mountain of books" to this apartment."

Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan at the age of 86 is still passionate about finding information and working every day.

Mrs. Mui had just suffered a stroke, so the doctors advised her to avoid traveling too much. Previously, the family lived in a ground-level house, had to climb stairs every day, and was greatly affected by traffic noise, so the couple decided to move to an apartment. Although the moving work is still messy, many books are still temporarily placed on the bed, but that does not affect the reading and writing ability of Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan.

On the small but tidy desk, I saw Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan writing an article, along with three time-stained notebooks recording General Vo Nguyen Giap. He shared: "During the research process, I carefully recorded and kept everything useful. Although I can use computers and social networking sites proficiently, I do not depend on technology. I read and research every day, because if I do not do so, I feel outdated. When looking up, I only need to remember the keywords to know which book and which page the information is in."

Despite his advanced age, Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan is still passionate about his research work. Over the past two years, he has published two personal books and written dozens of articles.

- Professor, what is the motivation that makes you passionate about your work every day, even at your old age?

- I was born in a poor rural area of ​​Thanh Hoa province. At that time, life was so hard that no one in my village had gone to high school. That year, there were only 2 people in the village who went to middle school, and then I was the only one who went to high school. I still remember my father's advice: "Your parents have no property to leave you. No one in our village has gone to high school, so you should try your best to study." In 1959, I was honored to be sent to study in the Soviet Union.

- Why did the professor choose philosophy, a subject that was still quite unfamiliar in Vietnam at that time?

- When I was assigned to the major, I honestly did not know what philosophy was. When I was training in foreign languages ​​to prepare to study in the Soviet Union, the Russian teacher was happy when she learned that I was sent to study philosophy and made a gesture indicating that people studying this major often have "big heads". That made me very excited. I started looking for books and imagined philosophy when I read the book "Cosmology" by Professor Tran Van Giau.

After completing his fourth year of university at Lomonosov State University (Soviet Union), the young man Nguyen Trong Chuan was transferred to teach at the Faculty of Literature of Hanoi University of Science (now Hanoi National University). The luckiest thing for him was to study in a quality educational environment, to work with the country's leading professors and scientists such as Professor Hoang Xuan Nhi, Professor Ha Minh Duc, Professor Le Dinh Ky, Professor Phan Cu De... and to be given the opportunity to freely explore and conduct scientific research.

Devote all your energy to the country's philosophy

When he moved to work at the Institute of Philosophy (Vietnam Social Sciences Committee), now part of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, in 1968, he continued to research and teach philosophy and research biology. In 1975, he successfully defended his biology thesis on human cell genetics and was evaluated by the council as excellent, scoring 10 points. However, the biology major still left him with regrets. “When I graduated from the Biology Department, Hanoi University of Science wanted to keep me as a PhD student. In just two years, I could defend my PhD thesis on the topic of Down syndrome in Vietnam, a very new topic in our country at that time. Unfortunately, due to objective reasons, I was not able to continue as a PhD student in biology. If I had the opportunity to defend my PhD thesis in biology, I am confident that I would have made more contributions to the philosophy and biomedical fields of Vietnam,” said Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan.

With his sharp intellect and friendly personality, many students often ask for his opinion on various issues in life and work. Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Van Dung, Party Secretary and Principal of Hong Duc University, spoke about teacher Nguyen Trong Chuan with all respect: "Teacher Chuan is like a second father who has helped me to be solid in knowledge, equipped me with methods of researching and teaching philosophy. I learned from him about the spirit of learning, passion for philosophy, patience, respect and modesty, social responsibility, care for colleagues and generations of students".

Throughout his life of research and training, Professor, Doctor Nguyen Trong Chuan devoted all his efforts to the country's philosophy. Since the mid-1970s of the 20th century, he was the one who very early raised opinions on environmental issues and environmental protection in our country during the industrialization process, which is an urgent issue today; on the driving role of democracy, science and technology, human resources, culture and traditional values ​​in social development; on the need for party members to do private business; on people; on globalization and global issues; on social development and the path to socialism in Vietnam... He emphasized the need to re-understand correctly and accurately the views of the classics of Marxism through their different creative stages and the special need to re-translate correctly a number of important theses in the works of K.Marx, F.Engels and VILenin; thereby correctly determining the social development and path to socialism in Vietnam.

Over the past 50 years, Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan has had 90 books, textbooks written individually, jointly, edited, and co-edited, published domestically and internationally; along with more than 200 articles in domestic and foreign scientific journals. In particular, for students, he always emphasized the importance of the history of philosophy, the necessity of studying the history of philosophy, considering it the foundation for training and developing the Party's scientific thinking and theory. Most recently, his work "Respecting integrity, knowing how to maintain face and prestige before the people is the political responsibility of cadres and party members today" won the A prize in the 4th "Protecting the Party's ideological foundation in the new situation" writing contest (2024-2025) organized by the People's Army Newspaper in coordination with the Vietnam Journalists Association.

At the age of 86, despite having 3 stents to support his heart, Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan's joy is to read and research every day. When asked about his future research plans, he smiled kindly and said: "I am fortunate to be invited to teach at major universities; to be commissioned to write articles by major newspapers and magazines. Many times, when I am about to go to bed, I still wake up to take out a pen and paper to write down something I just thought of. As long as I have the strength, I will continue to read, continue to research, continue to contribute to the country's philosophy in particular and the cause of protecting the Party's scientific theory in general."

Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trong Chuan was awarded by the State the Third Class Resistance Medal (1984), the First Class Labor Medal (2008) and was awarded by ministries and branches: Commemorative Medal for the cause of science and technology, Commemorative Medal for the cause of education and training, Commemorative Medal for the cause of publishing political, theoretical and legal books of the Party and State.

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/phong-su-dieu-tra/cuoc-thi-nhung-tam-guong-binh-di-ma-cao-quy-lan-thu-17/tuoi-86-van-miet-mai-lam-viec-hang-ngay-885155