Sweden's SENSA discusses possibility of providing instruments to upgrade AIT laboratories
On 3 August 2007, Mr. Christer Holtsberg, Director of the Swedish Environmental Secretariat for Asia (SENSA), informed the AIT administration of the formation of a new agency of the Swedish Government with the role to support and promote the export of Swedish environmental technology. In this context, administration officials discussed the possibility of Swedish companies providing instruments to upgrade AIT's laboratories, for example the chemistry measurement laboratory will be explored as one possible beneficiary.
SENSA is a knowledge-based entity within the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), which promotes regional development cooperation, serving Sida's head office and its offices in the region. Its aim is also to cooperate with Swedish and regional organizations on the importance of environmentally sustainable development in Southeast Asia.
Mr. Holtsberg was joined on the visit by Dr. Per-Anders Bergqvist (Pekka), who taught at AIT as an Adjunct Faculty in the Environmental Engineering and Management (EEM) Field of Study from 1 June to 31 July 2007, during which he taught the course on Advanced Chemical Analysis over the inter-semester 2007. Dr. Bergqvist is an old friend of AIT and is currently working as a Researcher and Lecturer, at the Institute of Environmental Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Sweden. He has experience in teaching similar courses at the graduate level at Umeå University, and his course is also relevant for new research at EEM, especially in the POP-related topics that a number of AIT Ph.D. and master's students are pursuing.