[Vacets] VACETS Q&A Period Begins

[Tran Thong]

-----Original Message-----
From: Hung Nguyen [mailto:hunguyen57 at cox.net] 
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 8:28 AM
To: vacets at vacets.org
Cc: Dat Nguyen; nguyend at sigmaxi.org; hnguyenmd at yahoo.com; thnguyen at llnl.gov; Christopher Pham; Ban Tran
Subject: VACETS Q&A Period Begins
 
Dear VACETS Membership:
 
As shown in the schedule below, the time for candidate Q&A has started. We will have the Q&A on this forum for 2 weeks, followed by by candidate summaries starting September 9th. 
 
We will then start voting 12-16 September on another forum to be set up for this purpose. The candidate who receive the most vote will be the President-Elect and the other four candidates will serve in the Board of Directors. The results will be tallied and announced around September 19th.
 
In preparation for the questions, I have included the the 5 alphabetically sorted cadidate forms received for your review. Please take the time to read each of these forms as they represent the candidate positions and their visions for VACETS in the year to come.
 
Have fun and please contact me if you have any question about the election.
 
Thanks
Hu+ng Nguyen
VACETS Election Chair
 
---------------------------------------------
VACETS Đơn ứng cử / Candidate Form
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Tên Họ / Full name (Family, Given, Middle will all diacritical accents): Đạt William Huy Nguyễn
2. Phái / Gender (Male/Female - Nam/Nữ): Male
3. Địa chỉ điện thư / e-mail address: dnguyen at hms.harvard.edu or  <mailto:nguyend at sigmaxi.org> nguyend at sigmaxi.org
4. Nghề nghiệp / Professional position: Scientist
5. Năm gia nhập VACETS / year joined VACETS: 2005
6. Sơ lược nghề nghiệp và hoạt động trong VACETS / short biography and summary of activities in VACETS: I am an Alfred P. Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard University. The main theme of my current research at Harvard is to develop theory and mathematical methods for understanding the design principles in biological systems. From 1999-2002, as an institutional pre-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, my research then was on (1) the theoretical study of principles underlying the functions of biological molecules such as protein, RNA and DNA, and (2) the development of the linear-scaling parallel algorithm for massive  parallel computations of many frontier problems in computational physics, chemistry and biology. >From 1996-2002, as a doctoral student at the University of California-Davis, I was one of the first to introduce the concept that some proteins can attain their functions only if they have multiple, thermally accessible free energy states, which is recently becoming accepted as a new biological paradigm by the scientific community. In addition, my research then also shed light into the molecular biomechanics of RNA folding/packing of small molecules; and the effect of  electrostatics of highly charged RNA molecules on the electronic structure of small molecules. This year, I helped organize and chair a session on computational biology at the VTIC’05.
7. Học vấn / Education: Alfred P. Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (2002- ), Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry, University of California-Davis (2002), M.S. in Computer Science with emphasis in Mathematics, UC-Davis (2002), B.S. with highest honors in Chemistry, UC-Davis (1996). 
8. Tên (e-mail) các hội viên VACETS ủng hộ ứng cử viên / E-mail of VACETS members who endorse your candidacy ... Optional
9. Lập trường và chương trình cho VACETS / Position statement about VACETS: Vietnamese scientists and professionals have made significant contributions to the overall wealth of the American economy from many disciplines, despite their short presence in the United States for about 30 years or so. However, most of these contributions come from the individual experts, not from the group. Accordingly, the impact of one’s contribution to the society is quite often limited and not visible at the national arena, and the synergistic power of collaboration among  Vietnamese experts simply does not exist. In addition, our contributions to the society are not recognized appropriately at the level that they should be, simply because we have no political force behind us that can promote our strength and contribution, which often come from  nominations from the peers. To date, there are only a handful of organizations such as VACETS and VNAUP exist.  Because the goals of these organizations are mostly to promote friendships among Vietnamese scientists and professionals, they are limited by the scope of what they can actually do. In addition, these organizations are often small, structurally fragmented, lack of unity and the necessary level of enthusiasm from members, and have no clear political objective.  Therefore, practically speaking we do not have any viable organization to represent us at all.
I believe that VACETS’ most important mission in the near terms should be to unite all Vietnamese scientists and professionals in order to form a strong and united social network, and to provide a fertile ground on which people can (1) form collaborations or partnerships (possibly via annual retreat/meeting); (2) help each others (possibly via some sort of online group discussion); (3) and develop leadership skills (organizing conference, fundraising, social events, etc.). While marching toward these objectives, the organization can use its political and social network to (1) further recruit new members (possible via local college chapters), and (2) help raise the public awareness of our strength and contribution to the American society. This can be done via a variety of means such as publications in the paper and electronic media, which in my view are absolutely necessary for the credibility of any viable organization. These are a few goals that I believe VACETS can achieve within a few years, and I intend to help revitalize the VACETS mission and objective.
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Tên Họ / Full name (Family, Given, Middle will all diacritical accents): Hùng Ngọc Nguyễn
2. Phái / Gender (Male/Female - Nam/Nữ): Nam
3. Địa chỉ điện thư / e-mail address: hnguyenmd at yahoo.com
4. Nghề nghiệp / Professional position: Director, Network & Security Engineering Division, US Department of Treasury.
5. Năm gia nhập VACETS / year joined VACETS: 2005
6. Sơ lược nghề nghiệp và hoạt động trong VACETS / short biography and summary of activities in VACETS: This is my first time involving with VACETS.  After talking to the President elect and understood the goals of the VACETS, I am inspired to be a part of this organization to assist the organization achieving its goals and objectives in promoting and exchanging technical and managerial knowledge.
7. Học vấn / Education: BSAE University of Maryland, College Park, MEM (Master of Engineering Management) George Washington University
8. Tên (e-mail) các hội viên VACETS ủng hộ ứng cử viên / E-mail of VACETS members who endorse your candidacy ... Tri Tran (President elect)
9. Lập trường và chương trình cho VACETS / Position statement about VACETS: Individuals with Vietnamese heritage are reaching the top of their profession in increasing numbers around the world.  A great number of scientists and engineers have been effectively contributed to this statistic.  With a vast number of untapped talents through out the world, there should be a mechanism to promote expertise and to exchange technical know how while assisting the next generation of scientists and engineers starting on the right track.  VACETS could serve as the missing mechanism to tie and network all professionals all over the world to offer advices and assist (if possible) with technical solutions.
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Tên Họ / Full name (Family, Given, Middle will all diacritical accents): Tuấn H. Nguyễn  
2. Phái / Gender (Male/Female - Nam/Nữ): Male
3. Địa chỉ điện thư / e-mail address: thnguyen at llnl.gov
4. Nghề nghiệp / Professional position: Scientist/Adjunct Prof of Chemistry
5. Năm gia nhập VACETS / year joined VACETS: 2005
6. Sơ lược nghề nghiệp và hoạt động trong VACETS / short biography and summary of activities in VACETS: VTIC05 organizing committee member, fundraising and exhibition chair
7. Học vấn / Education: PhD Organic Chemistry, BS Biochemistry
8. Tên (e-mail) các hội viên VACETS ủng hộ ứng cử viên / E-mail of VACETS members who endorse your candidacy ... Tri Tran <tran4 at llnl.gov>
9. Lập trường và chương trình cho VACETS / Position statement about VACETS:  VACETS represents a unique opportunity for Vietnamese American professionals to encourage and further mentor young Vietnamese Americans to continue the pursuit of excellence.  It is not only an opportunity but also a responsibility.
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Tên Họ / Full name (Family, Given, Middle will all diacritical accents): Christopher Hoàng  Phạm
2. Phái / Gender (Male/Female - Nam/Nữ): Male
3. Địa chỉ điện thư / e-mail address: chpham at cisco.com
4. Nghề nghiệp / Professional position: Engineering Manager III - Cisco Systems Inc., Adjunct Faculty - EE Department - San Jose State University
5. Năm gia nhập VACETS / year joined VACETS: 2005
6. Sơ lược nghề nghiệp và hoạt động trong VACETS / short biography and summary of activities in VACETS: Christopher Hoang Pham is currently an Engineering Manager III at Cisco Systems, Inc, a Senior IEEE member and has been an Adjunct Faculty at San Jose State University, EE  Department since 1997.  He is the pioneer and owner of the company-wide 21st Century BOW (Beyond the Ordinary Way) Testing Program.  In Fiscal Year 2004, BOW saved the company several hundred million dollars and significantly improved the customer satisfaction in complex technologies and security. Christopher has more than 17 years of industry experience. In his 6+ year tenure at Cisco he published more than 25 IEEE papers and holds multiple patents. He enjoys spending time with his wife, son and two twin daughters. He earned many awards and was featured internationally. Lately he was awarded the title Asian American Engineer of the Year 2005. His is listed in National Register's Who's Who in Executives and Professionals 2006-2007 Edition.
7. Học vấn / Education: BSEE (SJSU), MSEE (SJSU), Ph.D. coursework & project (UCD), 20+ professional certifications such as Executive Engineering & Project Management Program (Cisco Systems Inc. via George Washington University)
8. Tên (e-mail) các hội viên VACETS ủng hộ ứng cử viên / E-mail of VACETS members who endorse your candidacy ... Optional
9. Lập trường và chương trình cho VACETS / Position statement about VACETS: BUILD AND PROMOTE VACETS AS A PRESTIGIOUS  SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION FOR VIETNAMESE DECENDENTS
_______________________________________________________________________
  1. Tên Họ / Full name (Family, Given, Middle will all diacritical accents): Ban Trần
2. Phái / Gender (Male/Female - Nam/Nữ): Nam
3. Địa chỉ điện thư / e-mail address: ban_tran at ml.com
4. Nghề nghiệp / Professional position: Assistant Vice President & Senior Financial Advisor Global Private Client, Merrill Lynch



5. Năm gia nhập VACETS / year joined VACETS: 2001
6. Sơ lược nghề nghiệp và hoạt động trong VACETS / short biography and summary of activities in VACETS: Ban has 23 years of experience in the international banking and financial services industry prior to joining the Private Client Group of Merrill Lynch in 1999. He has developed extensive professional experiences working at Bank of America in New York, and First American Bank in Washington, D.C. specializing in trade finance and international private banking covering clients both in Europe and Asia. He later joined Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange, a British and German multinational corporation, as an Assistant Vice President and Account Manager in their Corporate and Financial           Institution Group.
Ban is a frequent lecturer at local companies, universities, and non-profit  organizations speaking on subjects such as retirement planning, estate wealth  protection and wealth transfer, and concentrated stock diversification strategies.    He currently serves on the board of Asian American LEAD (AALEAD), Devotion to Children, and VACETS.    He is also on the National Advisory Council (NAC) to the Smithsonian Vietnamese American Commemoration Project in Washington, D.C. Past involvement included fund raising activities via local contacts and organizing panel discussions for VTIC02 and VTIC05.
7. Học vấn / Education: B.A. in Economics and International Relations -  University of Pennsylvania, M.B.A. in International Finance -   George Washington University
 
8. Tên (e-mail) các hội viên VACETS ủng hộ ứng cử viên / E-mail of VACETS members who endorse your candidacy ... Optional
9. Lập trường và chương trình cho VACETS / Position statement about VACETS: My involvement  with VACETS in the past few years has led me to believe that this organization symbolizes the spirit of leadership, dedication and good old-fashion teamwork through volunteerism.  During this time in our world when so much of what we know hinges on the geopolitical coupled with the economical risks, it is satisfying to me to see the unity of thoughts and actions VACETS old and new members continue to embody in its ethnic and gender diversity. 
 
With the ever changing business environment and the demand of the work place,  VACETS offers a platform for all Vietnamese-Americans, young and old, to share their academic and professional achievements, and at the same time network to learn best practices among his or her own respective discipline.    Therefore, I salute past and present board members, especially those I have observed first hand in the last two VTIC events in Virginia and San Jose.   However, most of all, I salute the members who continue to contribute, in their own way, the values that makes this organization one which I am proud to be part of.