ESTABLISHMENT OF ENDOWMENT FUNDS
Endowment Fund for IAEDSMT
I am pleased to announce that an amount of money realized from our 40th Anniversary Conference in Civil and Environmental Engineering - New Frontiers and Challenges, which was held last November; the Milton Bender Lecture Series; and other outreach activities carried out by the School of Civil Engineering, will be placed in an Endowment Fund to support the establishment of the International Academy in Engineering Development and Scientific and Management Technology (IAEDSMT). The establishment of the Academy, the centerpiece at last year's 40th Anniversary Conference, paves the way for the global networking of leading universities, state and private sector agencies and research organizations, serving as a catalyst in promoting sustainable urban and rural environments and embracing multi-faceted science and technology activities, at the appropriate and advanced levels.
Among the Academy's upcoming activities are the Geotech 2000 Conference, the presentation of millennium awards and fellowships, and establishment of a summer school in new and emerging technologies.
The initial amount to be placed in the Academy's Endowment Fund is estimated at Baht 8 million.
We thank Chair Prof. A. S. Balasubramaniam of SCE for his hardwork and dedication to the pursuit of the above mentioned activities, as well as our colleagues who have given their full support to Prof. Balasubramaniam to ensure their success. Needless to say, my gratitude also goes to the many sponsors and donors who have so very generously supported the Institute in these endeavours.
Arirang Fund
It gives me great pleasure to inform the AIT community that Dr. Young-Suk Hyun, on secondment from KOICA to the School of Management, has made a personal contribution of US$1,000 towards the establishment of an endowment fund, to be named the 'Arirang Fund'. The Fund will be used to support nationals from North Korea to come to AIT for short training courses as well as degree programs in the future.
It is truly encouraging to all of us to be working in an institution that is a model of internationality and inspire noble initiatives such as this. Dr. Hyun has always wanted to find ways in which support could be extended to students from less developed countries. Since 1992, Dr. Hyun and other seconded faculty from Korea have been eager to find a way to encourage North Korean students to study at AIT. It is hoped that the setting up of this Fund would serve a small but significant step towards this direction.
Interested faculty, staff, students, alumni, Korean visitors, Koreans living in Thailand, and members of the Korean business community will hopefully support this fund raising effort.
Professor Jean-Louis Armand
President