Former faculty members pass away
The AIT community expresses its deepest regrets to the sad demise of former AIT faculty members Prof. Arthur N. L. Chiu and Dr. S. L. Upasena, who passed away recently.
Prof. Arthur N.L. Chiu
Prof. Arthur Chiu, a friend of AIT for almost 40 years, suffered a stroke on the evening of Friday, 27 January 2006 and passed away the following Monday, 30 January 2006. He was born in 1929
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Dr. Chiu was a professor of structural engineering and chairman of the structures division at AIT's predecessor, the South East Asia Treaty Organization's Graduate School of Engineering from 1966 to 1968. Dr. Chiu was originally from Singapore, and this was his first return to Asia since leaving for college in 1948
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During his time at the graduate school of engineering, Dr. Chiu taught graduate courses in indeterminate structures, modal analysis, computer applications and supervised research in structural engineering. Dr. Chiu arrived in Bangkok from his home in Honolulu in the summer of 1966 via a short tour of Southeast Asia with his family, Katherine (wife), Vicky (daughter) and Greg (son). They lived in hotels for a number of months before settling into a single family house on St. Louis 2, off of South Sathorn Road
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Dr. Chiu's years at the graduate school of engineering were devoted to his two passions: research and teaching. Throughout his career, Dr. Chiu maintained an interest in contributing to the knowledge of his students while also being a mentor who provided counsel on both professional and personal topics. His research focused on wind effects on full-scale structures, of which his 1961 dissertation ('Vibration of Towers as Related to Wind Pulses') is considered a seminal work
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Indeed some of the topics discussed in Dr. Chiu's dissertation are still the subject of full-scale research today because of the need to better understand wind-structure interaction
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Dr. Chiu brought both of these passions to the graduate school of engineering, and over the subsequent 40 years worked with his former students and colleagues to continue building bridges between the United States and Asian structural engineering communities
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He was extremely proud of having been able to serve at AIT's predecessor, and to work subsequently with friends, colleagues and former students on collaborative projects such as the East-Asia Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in August in Bangkok, the study of wind effects on full-scale towers on Taiwan, U.S.-Japan Natural Resources Development Program Wind and Seismic Effects, among others
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Many of Dr. Chiu's friends, colleagues and former students have been part of AIT for many years, including Professors Pisidhi Karasudhi, Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Seng Lip Lee, Za-chieh Moh and Pichai Nimityongskul, and he considered them friends, ensuring that he returned to Bangkok, Singapore and other countries in Asia to visit them on a regular basis. Dr. Chiu's visits will be missed, as his congeniality and professionalism were able to bridge East and West with a positive result for all concerned
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Dr. S.L. Upasena
Dr. S. L. Upasena, former faculty member in Agricultural Systems and Engineering field of study, died on 21 March 2006 at a hospital in Sydney, Australia.
Dr. Upasena completed his bachelor in agriculture from Sri Lanka. He completed his masters studies in agriculture from Moscow in 1967 and doctoral studies from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia in 1977. He traveled and worked in the Philippines, England, Hungary, Nigeria, Israel and Germany. He worked in Agricultural Systems field of study at AIT from 1989 to 1995. During this period, he was involved in the development of the farm research facilities at the west end. After leaving AIT, he joined as dean of the faculty of agriculture at the University of Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka. He is survived by his wife and two children.
The AIT community would like to extend our heartfelt condolence and sympathy to the bereaved family, relatives and friends at this time of great personal loss.