PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Thang Luong

Also known as Luong Minh Thang

Thang Luong is a principal scientist and director of research at Google DeepMind, where he leads the Superhuman Reasoning team. He completed a Stanford PhD in 2016, and his LuongAttention invention was key to upgrading Google Translate in 2017. His 2015 paper on attention-based neural machine translation, written with Hieu Pham and Christopher Manning, received the ACL 10-year Test-of-Time award in 2025. At Google, he co-founded Project Meena in 2020, a chatbot that evolved into LaMDA. In 2025 an advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think earned a gold-medal score at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Works
23
Citations
11,336
h-index
13

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2009

    A research assistant at NUS

    In 2009 he questions whether to apply to a PhD program. His supervisor, Min-Yen Kan, advises him to stay at NUS as a research assistant.

  2. 2016–2017

    A Stanford PhD and Google Translate

    He completes his Stanford PhD in 2016. In 2017 his LuongAttention invention is key to upgrading Google Translate.

  3. 2018–2020

    VietAI and Project Meena

    VietAI, a national movement in AI education, starts in 2018, and he co-founds it. At Google he co-founds Project Meena in 2020, and the chatbot evolves into LaMDA.

  4. 2024

    AlphaGeometry in Nature

    AlphaGeometry, a theorem prover for Euclidean plane geometry, appears in Nature in 2024, with him among its authors.

  5. 2025

    A gold-medal olympiad score

    An advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think solves five of six problems at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2025, earning 35 of 42 points, a gold-medal score.

  6. 2025

    A 10-year Test-of-Time award

    The ACL gives its 10-year Test-of-Time award in 2025 to his 2015 paper on attention-based neural machine translation, written with Hieu Pham and Christopher Manning.

  7. 2026

    A graduation speech at NUS

    In 2026 he becomes the first Vietnamese invited to deliver a graduation speech at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing in its 50-year history.

  8. As of October 2026

    Director of research at DeepMind

    He is a principal scientist and director of research at Google DeepMind. Since 2024 he leads the Superhuman Reasoning team there.

Sources and credits

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  1. Google DeepMind director becomes first Vietnamese to deliver graduation speech at Asia's top computer science school - VnExpress International e.vnexpress.net. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Thang Luong research.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. From Vietnam to Silicon Valley – A Journey in Nurturing AI Talents – US-Asia Technology Management Center asia.stanford.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Towards a Conversational Agent that Can Chat About…Anything ai.googleblog.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Solving olympiad geometry without human demonstrations | Nature nature.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think officially achieves gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad — Google DeepMind deepmind.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. ACL Test-of-Time Papers Award Recipients - Admin Wiki aclweb.org. Checked 14 October 2026.