Introduction
Professor, Academician, Major General, Labour Hero Trần Đại Nghĩa (real name Phạm Quang Lễ) was born on 13/9/1913 into a poor peasant family in Chánh Hiệp village, Tam Bình district, Vĩnh Long province (now Hòa Hiệp commune, Tam Bình district, Vĩnh Long province). He is known as a great scientist, an outstanding representative of Vietnam's scientific ranks, and a person of great merit in building Vietnam's defence industry.
Youth and education
From childhood, Phạm Quang Lễ was very studious, intelligent, resolute, and eager to learn. He always ranked among the top in school examinations, standing first in both the local baccalaureate and the Western baccalaureate examinations. In 1935, he went to France to study when he had just turned 22. In 1940, he received almost at the same time three degrees: Road and Bridge Engineer, Electrical Engineer and Bachelor of Mathematics. After that, he continued studying and received three more engineering degrees: Aeronautics, Mining and Geology, and Mechanical Engineering.
Military scientific career
During his time in France, Phạm Quang Lễ researched on his own into weapons manufacturing. He stayed in France working at an aircraft research institute, then went to Germany to work in an aircraft manufacturing workshop and a weapons research institute. In September 1946, President Hồ Chí Minh went to France for negotiations, and Phạm Quang Lễ expressed his wish to serve the country. At the end of 1946, he was assigned the heavy responsibility of Director of the Military Supplies Department - Ministry of National Defence (now the General Department of Defence Industry of Vietnam) and concurrently Director of the Military Supplies Research Office - General Command of the Army (now the Institute of Military Science and Technology).
In 1947, under the technical direction of Trần Đại Nghĩa, the military supplies workshop located in Thái Nguyên successfully manufactured the Bazoka gun, a type of weapon mainly used against tanks and warships. Two years later, he and his colleagues researched and successfully manufactured the SKZ recoilless gun, a light weapon that could be carried on the shoulder but had great destructive power, used to fire at fortified fortresses, with warheads that pierced concrete.
Main milestones
In 1948, Professor Trần Đại Nghĩa was named in the list of 11 people first conferred the rank of general of the Vietnam People's Army. He was also the first Director of Military Supplies, one of the scientists who laid the foundations for Vietnam's young defence industry. On 20/11/1948, he was conferred the military rank of Major General when he was only 35 years old. In 1952, he was conferred the title of Labour Hero in the first batch of Vietnam. After that, he held the position of President of the Vietnam Institute of Science.
During the resistance war against America for national salvation, Trần Đại Nghĩa contributed no small part in finding measures against jamming by B-52 aircraft and upgrading the altitude of SAM-2 missiles to organise the most effective air defence. From the 1950s to the end of his life (1997), he was assigned heavy responsibilities in many different fields: Director of the Military Supplies Department; Director of the Artillery Department; Deputy Head of the General Department of Logistics; Deputy Head of the General Department of Technology; Head of the State Committee for Basic Construction; Head of the State Committee for Science and Technology; President of the Vietnam Institute of Science; Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade; Deputy Minister of Industry; Deputy Minister of Heavy Industry; the first Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations and the first Principal of Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
Professor Trần Đại Nghĩa died on 9/8/1997.