Dedicated professor ignites students’ spirit of scientific research

For over 30 steadfast years of nurturing students, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Tat has always been the unsung teacher who supports and ignites students’ inspiration for research.​

Turning down enterprises to focus on teaching​

Upon talking with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Tat, Vice Director of the Institute of Development and Applied Economics, Editor-in-chief of the Scientific Journal/Internal Journal of Hoa Sen University (HSU), HCMC, I soon realized something extraordinary. No matter how much he likes to indulge himself in scientific research, he only applies his papers into teaching and instructing students how to defend their theses or claim study abroad scholarships. Despite the countless offers to support his studies from enterprises, he still rejects every single one.

Not being distracted by other occupations, Dr. Tat’s sole desire is to educate students to become good researchers who will contribute to the better of society. Throughout 30 years of nurturing students, he has successfully guided many students to attain master’s and doctoral degrees who later became his colleagues, lecturers, researchers at creditable domestic and overseas universities.

According to Dr. Tat, although students nowadays have better conditions for conducting research than previous generations, not all of them show initial inspiration unless there is someone to pave the way.

Thus, he always strives to ignite his students’ spirit and curiosity for scientific research. To him, being successful in a field of research means constantly having innovative ideas. Ideas are compared to the foundation of a house. A firm foundation will ensure a durable construction. After having ideas for the topic, we will look up similar studies previously conducted to make sure that we form our unique ideas and traits before carrying out the research.

A “dreamer” with an inquisitive mind

During Dr. Tat’s class, students are free to speak their minds. After which, students will discuss and give feedback so he can improve his lesson delivery method. He often tells his students that: “Should you find nothing wrong with a chemical equation, you have only grasped 20% of its value. Hence, we must form a more extensive viewpoint by obtaining knowledge through books and hands-on experiment to re-examine other possibilities”.

In order to proficiently write a scientific paper, one must deliberately sign up for a variety of scientific conferences and report their study. Only then will we be able to receive feedbacks from specialists and scientists. Gradually, we will elevate our research skills starting from domestic scientific journals to international ones.

As Dr. Tat recalled, back when computer and the Internet weren’t developed, he had to look up information through books and magazines at libraries. Some even called him a day-dreamer, one that always spaced out and pondered about imaginary things. “But that wasn’t the point, I was actually contemplating about other issues that could be applied into my lessons”, Dr. Tat expressed.

At the age of 54, Dr. Tat still devotes himself to exploring new teaching methodologies. He has conducted many institutional-level and ministry-level studies, published 4 books for the purpose of teaching, typically: a study on the quantitative structure-activity relationship of anti-malaria, anti-cancer, anti-HIV, antifungal and antibacterial compounds; a study on anti-cancer medication of a set of 3-aminoflavonoid and formulation optimization, filtration of active substance from Febrifuga lour; etc.

Recently, Dr. Tat along with some Vietnamese scientists’ researches were published on international scientific journals, namely: “Investigating the suppression of protein of SARS-Covid-19 from a variety of compounds”. In which, the study on “Investigation into SARS-CoV-2 Resistance of Compounds in Garlic Essential Oil” contributed to the discovery of anti-pandemic methods.

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