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Prof. Ngo Bao Chau.

The winners are scientists from major and prestigious universities, including two Vietnamese scientists – Professor Ngo Bao Chau and Prof. Dam Thanh Son from the University of Chicago.

In its announcement, Simons Foundation said that Prof. Ngo Bao Chau is awarded for his proof of the fundamental lemma, a deep conjecture of Langlands, inaugurated a new geometric approach to problems in harmonic analysis based on arithmetic geometry. “His ideas have already inspired work in many areas, including mathematical physics and geometric representation theory,” the announcement stated.

In the category of Physics, Simons Foundation praised Prof. Dam Thanh Son as one of the rare theorists whose work has deep impacts across several subfields of physics.

“He has written important papers in quantum chromodynamics, theoretical nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and atomic physics. Perhaps the most significant of his many contributions concern the duality between black holes in anti-de Sitter space and strongly interacting fluids. His initial work with Policastro and Starinets on the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma opened new research directions in heavy ion physics and in string theory, and his subsequent work with Sachdev, Herzog and others established the AdS/CFT duality as a crucial theoretical tool of condensed matter physics,” wrote Simons Foundation.

This year, there are four prize winners in the category of mathematics, three for computer science and six for physics. They all come from prestigious schools such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland, Stanford University and the University of Chicago.

Prof. Dam Thanh Son.

The winners will receive $100,000 per year for research purposes, over five years and they can be funded in the next five years.

The Simons Investigators program provides a stable base of support for outstanding scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term study of fundamental questions.

To be an "Investigator", a scientist must ensure the following conditions: making study in the field of Mathematics, Physics or Computer Science, is the official lecturer of a U.S. or Canadian university and has never been received the Simons Investigator award previously.

In addition to the funding for scientific research, the winners will also participate in annual meetings at Simons Foundation to discuss scientific activities.

The Simons Foundation is a private foundation based in New York City, incorporated in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons.

The Simons Foundation’s mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. We sponsor a range of programs that aim to promote a deeper understanding of our world.