Trần Đại Nghĩa

Trần Đại Nghĩa (13 September 1913 – 9 August 1997) was a Vietnamese scientist, military engineer, and prominent figure in the defense industry of Vietnam. He held the rank of major-general and was recognized as both a military officer and a scholar. He was awarded the Order of Ho Chi Minh and honored as a Hero of Labor. He was also elected as an Academician of the former USSR Academy of Sciences.

Early life Trần Đại Nghĩa was born as Phạm Quang Lễ in Chánh Hiệp, Tam Bình commune, Vĩnh Long Province, to a poor but educated family on 13 September 1913. He received a bachelor's degree in 1933 in Hanoi. After two years working in the U.S. embassy, he met journalist Dương Quang Ngưu who helped him obtain a Chasseloup-Laubat Fellowship to study in Paris. In 1935, he arrived in France and subsequently graduated with bachelors in engineering and mathematics having attended, among others, the École Polytechnique. It's said that he tried to take 6 college degrees and certificates of the most famous universities of France. He then went to work at the École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique. In 1942, he moved to Germany, where he worked in various factories on the production of weapons and aircraft.

Revolutionary activities Trần Đại Nghĩa met Hồ Chí Minh in Paris in 1946 and returned to Vietnam with him on the SS Dumont de Urville, joining the Việt Minh in the north of the country, where he participated in the organization of the production of weapons in the mountain forests. In 1948 he received the rank of major general, and the following year was then given the new position as Director of Military Research (now the Institute of Military Science and Technology).

In 1950 Nghĩa left the military and began developing the industrial capacity of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam(DRV). In the years 1950 to 1960 he was Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce.