This is the most unusual, yet rewarding and fascinating advising experience I have ever had. Sometime around 2008 I started noticing that a few months after posting a paper on the arxiv pertaining to the geometric combinatorics or sum-product inequalities in vector spaces over finite fields, a paper by Le Anh Vinh appeared, sometime proving my results in a different way, and sometimes improving those results. After some time, I contacted Vinh and realized that I have become his PHD advisor without even realizing it. In 2010 I was invited to Harvard to present Vinh's thesis to the Harvard faculty, an experience I treasure to this day. Observing Harvard mathematics faculty absorbing mathematics in real time was a mind-numbing and impressive experience.

Vinh and I have remained collaborators and friends ever since. He has invited me to Vietnam on several occasions and introduced me to his wonderful family. He also introduced me to several very strong young mathematicians, including Thang Pham, with whom I have done a considerable amount of joint work. I believe that my connections with Vietnam will only become deeper in the coming years.