The American astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan has been awarded the prestigious Cino del Duca World prize for 2012 from the Simone and Cino del Duca Foundation/Institut de France for his work on scientific popularisation in French.
Vietnamese born Thuan, was educated in French and is the author of a number of books, originally written in French, on philosophical questions the universe raises. Thuan, an expert in extragalactic astronomy, is a professor at the University of Virginia as well as a researcher at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics.
Thuan will receive the prize (a value of 300, 000 Euros, almost 400, 000 CAD) on June 6th at an official ceremony being held under the Dome of the Institut de France in Paris.