Vietnamese student wins two physics awards at once at world's No. 1 university
Tran Quang Vinh, an International Physics Olympiad gold medalist, was the only student to win two of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics department's academic awards this year.
Vinh, a Vietnamese student currently pursuing a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, has made history by winning two prestigious physics awards simultaneously at the world's top-ranked university, MIT.
The Morse/Orloff Research Award, worth $1,000, was bestowed upon Vinh for his outstanding academic performance and plans to pursue graduate studies in physics. This award honors Philip Morse and Joel Matthew Orloff, two influential figures in the field.
In addition to this accolade, Vinh also secured the Barrett Prize, another $1,000 award, for seniors in astrophysics. This prize recognizes Alan Barrett's significant impact on physics education and his contributions to astrophysics.
Vinh, who graduated from Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, had previously shone brightly at the International Physics Olympiad in 2021, where he clinched a gold medal alongside two silver medals. He also excelled at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, earning a silver medal.
Having entered MIT in 2022, Vinh has been actively involved in the university's physics department and the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. He is the first author on two notable papers published in Physical Review D in August 2024.
These papers, titled "Gravothermal catastrophe in resonant self-interacting dark matter models" and "Novel density profile for isothermal cores of dark matter halos," have earned him recognition in the scientific community. In 2025, Vinh received the MIT Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Currently, Vinh is engaged in doctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology, focusing on large-scale structure, dark matter, computational astrophysics, and machine learning. His dedication and achievements have been duly acknowledged through these two esteemed awards.
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