‘Nguyen’ building coming to George Mason University
November 12th, 2009The largest academic building on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus will carry the name “Long and Kimmy Nguyen Engineering Building,” after the businessman and his wife, who donated $5 million to the university, the Washington Business Journal reports here.
Dr. Long Nguyen is the founder and CEO of Pragmatics based in McLean, Virginia, a leading information technology solutions provider with more than 500 employees.
The 180,000-square-foot building formally opened this fall. It is also the university’s first LEED-certified green building.
Dr. Nguyen currently serves on GMU’s Board of Visitors. He actually did not go to school or teach there at all. Dr. Long Nguyen came to the U.S. as an exchange student in 1960, received his B.A. in physics from North Carolina State University, his M.A. also in physics from the University of Virginia, and his Ph.D. in computer at Iowa State University, according to the bio posted on his company’s web site.
The GMU Board of Visitors’ web site says that Dr. Nguyen has taught as professor in computer science at Georgetown, Indiana, and the Bolsavik’s alma mater, Purdue.
Dr. Nguyen is noted as a “frequent giver” in the Greater D.C. area. He has established 9/11 and Katrina relief funds, and funded endowed chairs at Iowa State University and at George Mason University.
He once hosted a dinner for 80 wounded soldiers, and gave phone cards to the patients at the Walter Reed Army Hospital.
In 2008, Dr. Nguyen was named one of Washington Business Journal’s 2008 Minority Business Leaders.
GoldSea, the Asian American daily newspaper, ranks Dr. Nguyen among the 100 Top Asian Entrepreneurs. At no. 83, Dr. Nguyen is 10 places ahead of famed designer Vera Wang.
Dr. Nguyen is also active politically. In 2005, when Tim Kaine was elected governor of Virignia, he picked Dr. Nguyen to serve on his transition team.
Dr. Nguyen has donated frequently to political causes. Most of the recipients have been Democrats. In 2008, Dr. Nguyen gave $28,500 to the DNC and another $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The year before, he gave $26,700 to the DNC.
The Pragmatics Inc. PAC also made donations to mostly Democratic candidates. Joe Biden received $2000 in 2008, and the same year Jim Webb got $1000. Two Republicans received donations from the Pragmatics PAC in 2008: Congressmen Virgil Goode Jr., and Frank Wolf, who frequently joins Rep. Loretta Sanchez as a co-author and/or co-sponsor of several bills and resolutions in support of human rights in Vietnam.
Tags: Viet business, Viet success
November 12th, 2009 at 8:13 am
It’s so sad to see that none of the Vietnamese politician names was mentioned in regard of support the human rights in Vietnam. It doesn’t look like ” Viets always look out for Viets…” to me. Now, I’m questioning what are they all good for? I guess my vote has been a waste but I won’t make the same mistake twice.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Your mention of Mr. Nguyen support for Rep. Loretta Sanchez probably spoiled Jung Kim fervent rhetorics for “Vietnamese for Vietnamese”.
Van Tran where have you been ?
November 12th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I have been working really hard to raise money for my campaign. Please support me anyway you can, I’d really appreciated.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Best wishes to Dr Nguyen.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
>Dr. Long Nguyen received his B.A. in physics from North Carolina State University, his M.A. also in physics from the University of Virginia, and his Ph.D. in computer at Iowa State University.
People who majored in Physics are very smart ! but since it’s hard to find employment in Physics, they spanned out to other fields and excel in everything they do.
I hope Dr. Long someday will contribute to modernize VN.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Hot Fat Mama, you may be interested in this news too:
http://www.unesco.org/science/psd/prizes/kalinga/kalinga2009.shtml
November 12th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan (Vietnam) is an astrophysicist internationally recognized for his research in extragalactic astronomy (concerning objects beyond the Milky Way). He is the author of more than 230 articles on the formation and evolution of galaxies, in particular of dwarf galaxies, and on the synthesis of light elements in the Big-bang. His articles are widely cited.
For his astronomical research, Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan makes use of the largest telescopes on Earth (Kitt Peak, Hawaii, Chile…) and in space (Hubble, Spitzer…). In late 2004, thanks to observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope, he discovered the youngest known galaxy in the universe (I Zwicky 18), a discovery that was amply discussed in the international press.
In addition to his research, Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan teaches a course at the University of Virginia which is known as “Astronomy for Poets”. Students with a non-scientific background take this course to discover the wonders of the Universe related in non-technical language.
Prof. Thuan has published many books for non-scientific readers. Among his most famous are: The Secret Melody, a panorama of modern cosmology and its philosophical implications; An Astrophysicist, an Autobiography; Birth of the Universe - The Big Bang and After, an illustrated history of the Big Bang; Chaos and Harmony, a synthesis of the perspectives of scientific revolutions in the 20th century and of their philosophical implications; The Quantum and the Lotus, a dialogue with the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard on convergences and divergences of science and of Buddhism in their descriptions of reality; Origins, a coffee-table book illustrated with splendid photographs of the cosmos, which tells the 14 billion-year history of the Universe from the Big Bang to the emergence of the life and consciousness; and The Ways of Light, explaining the Universe through the signals it sends us in the form of light. This latter book has been awarded the 2007 Grand Prix Moron by the Académie francaise.
All of his books were originally written in French and have since been translated into at least 20 languages, including English. Professor Trinh Xuan Thuan is regularly an invited guest on television and radio talk shows in the USA, France and elsewhere.
The UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science, the oldest UNESCO Prize in Science, Was awarded on for the first time in 1952. It is made possible by a generous donation from the Kalinga Foundation Trust in India, the Orissa State Government of India and the Indian Government.
The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is administered by the Division for Science Policy and Sustainable Development.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Dr.Nguyen was able to share his wealth with other people because he lives away from the Bolsa area. If he lives here, he would be like most Viet professional here who chose to live in their stupid boxes and looked down on their fellow Viets…Some even tried to rip people off through scams like home mod, vitamins,medical and the list goes on……….
November 12th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
You said it correctly brother gossipsaigon…
November 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Wassup Gossip…How are ya Dingo?..
Well-off folks around Little Saigon make me laugh my ass off everytime i look and observe them..Here we have a 5 years old kid when left Viet nam as a boat refugee, now grown up to be a full blown Navy commander, and he is a gentleman enough to admit of his Vietnamese heritage with pride…And if you just spend an hour walking around Little Saigon, you can see middle-aged half-ass FOBs, some dying blond hair, some acting so Americanized, and all acting like they have been here too long to remember our language…BUT SPEAKING ENGLISH WITH A HEAVY ACCENT?…WTF?.. And not gramartically correct ofcourse, makes me wonder?..
November 12th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I almost forgot one thing be4 going to bed, can somebody help me finding an answer to this…been bugging me forever.
Is that moonwalk singer named Michael Jackson Caucasian or Negro?….I know his skin looks kinda white, no?..I m not sure what color is his blood…I know all Vietnamese blood are red?..
Thanks in advance folks…Night.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Hello Sonny:
I agree with ya, brother man. I am who I am and act what I am. Too ethnic by the way I eat my food with fish sauce or uncoordinated attire, well too bad because you’re getting exactly what you see…
Black hair with a slight slant in my eyes fitting well in the background, it don’t mean I don’t see all the shite that goes on. Nor am I hired to carry out white man’s dirty work. Hell f-ing no! If that is the case, I might as well stay put back in VN and done that for commies. This is the land of the free and opportunity. If the shitehole community I live is diep in sh@t (no pun intended), I move to another that suits my taste or another job that values my skills, none of that hired fall guy for the piece of shite making gobs of money above me.
Risk = reward, larger the risk, higher the pay; hell f-ing no, I am taking all the risk and getting underpaid. If the boss man wants me to dig trenches with other diep sh#ts and they pose a danger to me, I just ask for mo’ money. Then again, that’s why their leader is making bank from extorting the locals and political party, for working in a dangerous environment with all the diep sh@ts and morons.
I don’t want to take up any more of Bolsavik’s blog space; after all, we have save it for JK’s random responses.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
May nguoi thiet la buon cuoi! Cu che bai nguoi Viet o My. Thanh pho Westminster & Garden Grove, neu khong nho nhung nguoi FOBs thi hai thanh pho nay bay gio chi la bai dat hoang, chu khong phai dat vang nua!
November 25th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Dr. Nguyen is a sucessful scholar and businessman as well as a noted philanthropist. He’s a credit to people of Vietnamese heritage. Period.