http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/...007/07-066.html

From Vietnam to NASA, a Husband-and-Wife Team of Engineers Reflect on Their Long Journey to the Marshall Center

05.31.07

Betty Humphery
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256-544-0034)

News release: 07-066


Diep and Huu Trinh HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – To get to where they are today, Drs. Huu and Diep Trinh have traveled farther than most -- fleeing war-torn Vietnam, overcoming language and financial barriers to get their education, and making the leap from war refugees to U.S. citizens. They're a husband-and-wife team of engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The Trinhs have been married -- and working for NASA -- for more than two decades. Today, Diep Trinh is a structural materials engineer at the Marshall Center's Material Processes Laboratory, where she develops and tests materials for the space shuttle's solid rocket motor. Huu Trinh is an aerospace engineer, working as the propulsion lead on a “LOX-methane” engine -- fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane -- being developed for potential use in a lunar-ascent vehicle.

They've come half-way around the world to set their sights on space exploration. Huu and Diep Trinh grew up in the same small town of BacLieu in South Vietnam, survived the fall of Saigon in 1975, and made their way to the United States in the early 1980s via an Indonesian refugee camp.

As the United States marks Asian-Pacific Heritage Month in May, the Trinhs pause to reflect on the benefits and challenges they face as American citizens. "I really appreciate America letting us in and giving us a chance," Diep says. "Whatever we have right now, we owe to the American people, so we work very hard to return it."

The Trinhs are no strangers to hard work, including overcoming some daunting barriers to get their educations. "When I came to the United States, I didn't even know how to say 'hello' in English," Diep says. "Aside from financial aid, my biggest challenge was learning English. In college, sometimes I'd sit in class and not understand what the teacher was saying, so I'd have to go home and learn the material there instead."

Overcoming these obstacles, she earned her bachelor's in chemistry at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Missouri at Rolla. Huu earned his master's in engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla and his doctorate in engineering from the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

Today, the Trinhs keep in touch with their family in Vietnam through telephone calls and occasional visits to their birth country. Even as the Trinh's fellow U.S. citizens might marvel at how far the Trinhs have come, those back home in Vietnam marvel at how far the couple has gone. "They cannot believe that both of us come from a small village, and yet we work for the space program in the United States," Huu says. "They are really proud of us."

The parents of three daughters, the Trinhs strive to pass on the best of both worlds to their children. A challenge, the couple says, is helping their daughters understand both the traditions of their homeland and the benefits of life in America. "I take my kids back to Vietnam, so they can see their heritage and can appreciate what we have in the United States," Diep says.

Huu shares that sentiment. "We should not take things for granted over here," he says. "We want to set a good example for our children that we work hard, so we try our best."

Today, one of their daughters is in college, one is in junior high, and one is in elementary school. Each has a different career goal. One is studying to become a lawyer, one is looking toward a career in medicine, and the youngest has Olympic aspirations in figure skating. The Trinhs make their home in Huntsville.

wow..... wassup with the TRINHS????!!

We also have another Trinh - Dr. Eugene Trinh - who had flew to space and is now a director of the Physical Sciences Research Division in the Biological and Physical Research Enterprise at NASA Headquarters.
LINKhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_H._Trinh

I love hearing things like this. so cool!

thanks for the post

that's nothing.

i once read an article about a vietnamese lady who was bombed out of vietnam and came to America, now she designs the the deadliest bomb for US military.

Eugene Trinh is probably the highest ranking Asian-American NASA official. It's a testimony of achievements of Viet Americans despite all odds. Here is another story of Viet NASA engineer. All these people have doctorate degrees and work for the world's famous space agency.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/Ne...2005/05-04.html

RELEASE: 05-04

Vietnamese Immigrant's Dreams Find Reality As A NASA Aerospace Engineer

Conducting mock dogfights with neighborhood friends on bicycles as the children pretended they were flying jet fighters was one of Trong Bui's memories from his childhood in Vietnam.

Today, Bui has realized his dreams of a career in aviation as an aerospace engineer at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Image Right: Scott Bartel of Blacksky Corp. and Trong Bui, principal investigator for the aerospace rocket experiment at NASA Dryden, install the rocket data acquisition system into the first of two solid-fueled aerospike research rockets flown in March 2004. NASA photo EC04-0113-40, by Tom Tschida

"I was always interested in fighter jets, and dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot some day," said Bui, who grew up during the Vietnam War era as well as the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 1960's. "I was very proud that I was always the first kid who correctly identified the jets that flew over our neighborhood, either by sight or sound."

He read as much as he could about airplanes, and was a big fan of the French comic book series "Tanguy et Laverdure" and" Buck Danny, "which told fictional stories of the adventures of French and American fighter pilots.

Born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam until he was 14, Bui and his family escaped to Thailand by small boat in 1979, four years after the Vietnam War concluded. Sponsored by his aunt and uncle in Sacramento, Calif., they left a Thai refugee camp for the United States four months later.

Bui never forgot his dream of becoming a pilot. But after being rejected twice for pilot training by the Air Force, first due to disqualification of his green-card permanent resident status, second due to his eyesight, Bui decided to study aeronautical engineering so that he could still work with airplanes.

While working on his master's dissertation project as a graduate research assistant at NASA Ames Research Center in 1988, Bui became interested in working for NASA. He worked in the Unitary Wind Tunnel Complex at NASA Ames, where he was assigned to work wind tunnel wall interference issues for the 11-foot transonic wind tunnel.

"I simply fell in love with the technical research work that was conducted there, both in the wind tunnels and in the massive computational facility that NASA Ames had," Bui recalled.

After obtaining his masters degree in 1990, he accepted a position at NASA's Glenn Research Center (then Lewis Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio. At Glenn, he was assigned to the Inlets, Ducts, and Nozzles Flow Physics Branch of the Internal Fluid Mechanics Division working on the Proteus Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code.

In 1997, Bui transferred to NASA Dryden where he was involved with the F-15 Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) thrust vectoring nozzles project, the X-43A skin friction experiment and the High Speed Instrumentation Test project that was intended to collect data for a scramjet flowpath in flight at Mach 6. He also worked on the Russian CIAM (Central Institute of Aviation Motors) scramjet flight experiment, in which NASA collaborated with the Russian agency to obtain flight data for a Mach 6.5 scramjet mounted on the nose of a rocket.

Now working in the Propulsion and Performance Branch of Dryden's Research Engineering Directorate, Bui was recently involved in the Dryden Aerospike Rocket Test, which he deems a highlight of his career. NASA, the Air Force Flight Test Center, Blacksky Corp., and Cesaroni Technology Inc., joined forces to become the first known team to fly a rocket with an aerospike nozzle to transonic speeds.

Bui explained: "To me there is no comparable experience to design, ground test, and then finally watch your work take off with lots of noise and smoke, screaming straight as an arrow into the sky, and punching a hole into that wide clear blue sky at supersonic speeds," he observed.

"All of the advances and rewards that we now have in the air travel, defense, and the space industry were drawn from the pool of knowledge that prior aerospace researchers (both from inside and outside of NASA) have created through all their hard work and sacrifice," Bui added.

Bui earned bachelor's and master's degrees in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and a doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

When not working complex aerospace engineering projects at NASA Dryden, Bui enjoys reading, listening to classical music and rollerblading at the beach, and especially spending time with his wife and three-year old daughter.

Eugene Trinh isn't even Vietnamese. Now a real Vietnamese astronaut was Pham Tuan. Of course I'm sure Yellow Flag wavers care more for Trinh than Pham.

As far as I'm concerned Eugene Trinh is as vietnamese as any of us including those who live in VN. Which part of him makes you think he isn't?

Pham Tuan had the distinction of being the first Asian to orbit the earth, which by no means is a small achievement. Both the US and the USSR could have chosen some other Asian men for their space missions at that time. On the side note, the Vietnamese backup autronaut for Pham Tuan was killed in a Mig training session if memory serves me right.

Isn't he Chinese?

BTW Pham Tuan wasn't the first asian in space. I believe Yuri Gagarin was.

I am just stating a fact, but of course I am cognizant of Pham Tuan being the first Vietnamese cosmonaut. He certainly has achieved something important in his own rights, but right now Eugene Trinh is a NASA official, not Pham Tuan. I don't look at this from a political angle.

Jeanette Le

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/Fe...jeanetteLe.html

Nguyet Anh Duong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyet_Anh_Duong

Bomb Lady: Vietnamese American Makes Tools for War on Terror

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_articl...fb0af787a6ceaaf

Wow awesome! The Ngụy not only helped America bomb the hell out of Vietnam, they're also doing it to other countries like Iraq now.

What a great achievement by the Ngụy.

Great pity!!! Can't bear a supposedly Vietnamese person being involved with such a murderous business

Damn from the same article.



Fuk Yeah! The Ngụy whole heartedly supports the Iraq war.
I heard the Ngụy were disappointed that US forces didn't go back to VietNam to bomb it again.

Does this mean that that bunch of yellow flags are more pro-war than even Jews???

Ummm..Ben you need to fix this double post problem!

I can't speak for all Yellow Flag Wavers, but this Yellow Flag Waver supports freedom and democracy for all peoples. For all the horrible things you hear coming out of Iraq. People forgot this image.



This is a sick and elderly Iraq woman insisting that she able to vote. Even on her sick bed, she wanted to show the world what CHOICE means to her. We should allow the number of American and Iraqi deaths to burn in our collective consciousness, but we should also have a place in it for this elder sick woman.

Like it saids on this monument to the Korean War: Freedom Is Not Free

Eugene Trinh is Vietnamese! If you don't have any fact to disprove it other than the claim of some chinese people then shut up!