[3] Lê Văn Thiêm was born in 1918 at Trung Lễ Commune, Đức Thọ District, Hà Tĩnh Province, to an intellectual family.
In 1939, after passing the final term examination excellently, Thiêm was offered a scholarship to study at École Normale Supérieure.
Under the direction of Professor Georges Valiron, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation successfully in Germany at 1945 and then moved to the University of Zurich where he met and worked with Rolf Herman Nevanlinna for some years.
[citation needed] In the 1960s, he was one of the scientists who suggested opening two national high schools (Hanoi National University of Education High school and Hanoi University of Science) to foster Vietnamese mathematics talents.
[6] Lê Văn Thiêm died in 1991 in Hồ Chí Minh City, aged 73.