Peenie Wallie

Viet Super Scholar Gets 7th Degree At MIT
Denver Post
November 17, 1988
by The Associated Press

BOSTON -- Tue Nguyen did more than nibble from the tree of knowledge, he
made a feast of it.

Just nine years after arriving in this country with thousands of other
Vietnamese boat people, Nguyen, 26, has earned his seventh degree from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a doctorate in nuclear
engineering. The school says it thinks that is a record for MIT.

Nguyen told MIT's public relations office he earned the degrees "to get
the most out of my time at MIT and out of my tuition."

He also said he isn't a partygoer.

The super scholar was in Burlington, Vt., this week preparing to start a
job at IBM desiging technology for the manufacture of semiconductor
devices. he did not return telephone calls, but one of his fans back in
Cambridge was happy to talk about him.

"You're not likely to find another person like this very often," said
nuclear engineering professor Sidney Yip, his doctoral adviser.

"He's a very quiet guy, very laid back," said Yip. "But, as you can
imagine, deep down he has a lot of willpower."

Nguyen entered MIT in 1981. By taking up to 12 courses a semester
instead of the normal MIT student load of four, he earned his first
undergraduate degree in three years and finished up four more bachelor's
degrees in one more year. He then began his graduate work.

He was so busy attending classes that he had difficulty doing his
homework assignments, Yip said.

He holds bachelor's degrees in physics, in computer science and
engineering, in electrical engineering, in mathematics, and in nuclear
engineering. He got his masters degree in nuclear engineering in 1986
and finished work on his doctorate in nuclear engineering this fall.

But that was only what he learned at MIT. He also studied English in
Texas and Chinese at Harvard, the latter being the language of his
fiancee's family. Nguyen and two younger brothers left Vietnam in 1978.

His father, a retired government employee, and mother remain in in
Vietnmam with two other sons and a daughter.

After three days at sea packed into a small boat with 300 other
refugees, the brothers arrived in Malaysia and spent nine months in a
refugee camp. A church group rescued them by sponsoring their passage
to Pasadena, Texas, where they moved in with relatives.

Nguyen enrolled at a junior college in the Houston suburb, mainly to
learn English.

At 19, he entered MIT.