Welcome to IFIRSE

The Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Education (IFIRSE) is part of the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE) in Quy Nhon, Vietnam. Our mission is to conduct curiosity-driven fundamental research in the physical sciences at an international level and to train the next generation of scientists.

IFIRSE was founded under the inspiration of the Vietnamese-French physicist Prof. Jean Tran Thanh Van, creator of the celebrated Rencontres de Moriond in 1966 — the gatherings that, for nearly six decades, have brought theorists and experimentalists together in an intimate, almost family-like setting. That same spirit of Moriond — small, immersive, dedicated to communication across borders and generations — animates IFIRSE today on the central coast of Vietnam. READ MORE

Through the Rencontres du Vietnam (founded 1993) and the inauguration of the ICISE campus in 2013, Prof. Tran returned this scientific spirit to his country of birth. IFIRSE is the permanent research arm of that long-held vision — and from its earliest days the project has drawn enthusiastic support from leading scientific voices around the world. In 2015, Nobel laureate Prof. Jerome I. Friedman wrote in support of the institute:

“In the area of Science, Vietnam has two great needs. The first is to make closer connections with the international world of science. The second is to increase its scientific activities and to provide opportunities so that its most talented young scientists do not have to go abroad to find positions in which they can do their science at the highest levels. The creation of an Institute of Excellence associated with the ICISE International Center in Quy Nhon would serve both purposes.” — Prof. Jerome I. Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1990), letter of support, 2015

The full letter can be found here