The Asian Institute of Technology was deeply saddened this week to
learn of the sudden passing away of Dr. Nowarat
Coowanitwong, 36, Assistant Professor and coordinator of the
Urban Environmental Management field of study at AIT's School of
Environment, Resources and Development (SERD). Dr. Nowarat joined AIT
in 2004.
Dr. Nowarat passed away peacefully on March 18, 2009 at her home in
Ratchaburi, Thailand.
Though young, her professional contributions to society were numerous
through her dedicated work in the areas of Strategic Environmental
Assessment, Environmental Auditing, Nanotechnology, and Urban
Environmental Technology. A full list of Dr. Nowarat's many
accomplishments can be found here.
The loss of Dr. Nowarat was a great shock and an irreparable loss to
AIT, said Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Dean of SERD, announcing the news to
the AIT community by email yesterday morning. He added that the
school’s faculty, staff, and students will deeply miss Dr. Nowarat, her
enthusiasm, and her dedicated support of her students and colleagues.
In his remarks, Dean Kumar described meeting Dr. Nowarat just two weeks
ago at Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok where she continued to discuss
her work and her students' progress.
Dr. Nowarat was remembered and honoured by the Asian Institute of
Technology on the same day of her passing with a one-minute period of
silence during the Institute Forum, attended by a large section of the
AIT community at the main auditorium on campus.
Traditional bathing rites were held in her honour on March 18th at Wat
Dontako, Ratchaburi Province. Further details on religious rites will
be announced later. The schedule of Dr. Nowarat's funeral ceremony will
also be announced later. For more information, please contact Khun
Wantana, ext 5606, 6368.
If you have any tributes, photos or stories to share about Dr.
Nowarat Coowanitwong, kindly send these to MCU at mcu@ait.asia. Selected information to
honour her memory will be posted online.
Several colleagues from the Southeast Asia Urban Environmental
Applications (SEA-UEMA) Project have set up a remembrance page at this
link: http://www.sea-uema.ait.ac.th/remembrance.php.