On May 16^th, 2023, the President of Vietnam National University-Hanoi (VNU) signed the decision No. 1702/QĐ-ĐHQGHN on the recogniting Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc as Chairman of VNU University of Engineering and Technology. Previously, on May 5^th, 2023, the University Council of University of Engineering and Technology has met and elected Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc as Chairman of the University Council with absolute confidence.

Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc has successfully completed 2 terms as Director of the Academic Affairs Department (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) of VNU. In this position, Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc has promulgated many important initiatives and contributions to the development of VNU, such as developing talent, high-quality and international-standard programs (in 2022, the enrollment rate of these programs have reached 45% of the total enrollment target of VNU); opening many new training programs and special pilot training programs; issuing many pioneering policies such as special policy for high school students of VNU (direct admission to university for gifted high school students with excellent academic achievements and results; allowing high school students to accumulate some subjects at undergraduate level …); organizing the VNU Olympic examination to find and select excellent high school students across the country in order to create a source of high-quality university entrance; proposing and taking the lead in using the prestigious international competency assessment results such as SAT, ACT, A-level Cambridge for undergraduate admission in Vietnam; allowing the PhD students which have excellent international publications don’t need to take the closed review; initiating and pioneering the development and implementation of a competency assessment project for undergraduate admission in VNU; developing the training regulations for both undergraduate and graduate level with many new and unique features but still ensuring the quality, demonstrating the pioneering and integration with international standards at VNU (up to now, VNU is the only training organization in the country that requires PhD students to publish international papers before graduating); promoting the integration of training activities and research activities and transferring those activities into reality; building and developing strong research groups in the universities; promoting the publishing of the textbooks and digitalizing them; deploying and promoting the digitalization of training and enrollment management at VNU.

At the same time, Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc is also the key person to develop human resource training projects for the Northwest provinces, for the Southern and South Central provinces; hosting the projects to support basic sciences, the doctoral training project with international standards; proposing policies to support scholarships for excellent PhD students and postdoctoral trainees at VNU. Prof. Dr Sci. Duc has also participated in the National High School Examination Steering Committee for many years and other professional councils of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Especially, Prof. Dr Sci. Duc is a person who perseveres and orients to renovate the structure of training program in VNU, from only focusing on basic sciences programs to many new interdisciplinary programs, advanced technology and engineering programs … 10 years ago, the proportion of technology and engineering programs shared only 8% in the total enrollment target of VNU, but now, this figure increases to 20%.

During the period that Prof. Dr. Sci. Duc has been working as Director of Academic Affairs Department at VNU, the training management at VNU has shown both dedication and vision, steadfastly maintained the quality and discipline in training activities, and promoted the training and research activities to integrate with international standards, so that VNU is always worthy of being a reliable university for training and fostering talents, pioneering innovation, and being an important pillar in the undergraduate education system.

Previously, Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc was Director of Science and Technology Department of VNU (2005-2008), and 15 years ago was Vice President of University of Engineering and Technology (2008-2012).

Prof. Nguyen Dinh Duc is a talented and dedicated teacher and scientist and is influential and prestigious in both the domestic and international scientific communities. Prof. Dr. Sci. Nguyen Dinh Duc is Head of the strong research group on Advanced Materials and Structures of VNU, which has implemented the new and modern research directions on advanced composite materials, intelligent materials with variable mechanical properties FGM and FG CNTRC; auxetic materials and textures; applying optimization algorithms of bee colonies, Machine Learning and AI in technical problems. Prof. Duc has been as  Vice Chairman of Vietnam Mechanics Association for many years, member of the editorial board of Mathematical Physics journal – VNU, Vietnam Mechanics journal (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), Science and Technology journal (Ministry of Science and Technology) and member of the Editorial Board of 10 prestigious ISI journals.

Prof. Nguyen Dinh Duc is also the founder of the Advanced Structural and Materials Laboratory (2015); founded the Department of Traffic Construction Technology (2018) (now is Faculty of Traffic Construction Technology); Prof. Duc has also proposed, built, and opened the master’s program and undergraduate program in civil engineering at Vietnam Japan University (2016, 2022); and undergraduate program in automation and informatics engineering in International Schools (2021). These programs have attracted young doctors and talented students, developed international collaborations and strong research groups, and contributed to strengthening the science and technology activities in key fields at VNU. He has made important contributions to the field of engineering and technology of VNU which ranked 386th in the world in the QS ranking of 2022.

For 4 consecutive years from 2019 to now, Prof. Nguyen Dinh Duc has been listed in the ranking of 10,000 scientists with the most scientific citations, and in 2022, he was ranked 94th in the world in the field of Engineering and Technology. Prof. Duc is one of three professors of VNU recognized as typical teachers of the education sector on the occasion of 40 years of educational career of Vietnam (1982-2022); Outstanding Teacher Award of VNU in 2022.

During the period of 2 terms (more 10 years) as Director of the Academic Affairs department of VNU, Prof. Nguyen Dinh Duc was continuously a grassroots emulation warrior, including 4 times as an emulation warrior at VNU level and 2 times as an emulation warrior at Ministerial level; 15 Certificates of Merit from the President of VNU, 3 Certificates of Merit from the Minister of the Ministry of Education and Training; Labor Medal 3^rd Class 3 (2016); Labor Medal 2^nd Class (2022); The Academic Affairs Department, where Prof. Dr. has been director from 2012 to now, has been an excellent department for more than 10 consecutive years, and so far this department is the only one at VNU to have received the Labor Medal 3^rd Class of the President in 2018.