Interim Deans appointed at SET, SERD and SOM

Interim Deans appointed at SET, SERD and SOM

The Interim Dean selection process started when AIT President Worsak
called for nominations from AIT faculty and staff members. The nominee
was to be a current faculty member from the particular school of any
academic rank. On September 20, President Worsak received three
nominations to be considered for Dean SET, and one faculty member each
nominated for Dean SERD and Dean SOM. All nominees were contacted by
the AIT President and all confirmed to him their availability.
After careful consideration and consultations with AIT
colleagues, President Worsak made the final decision for the
appointments.

The Deans will be responsible for the School administration in
accordance to the Institute's policy and regulations. They will
complete their terms of office when the President’s term of office
ends. However, his / her term may be renewed by the new
President.

Professor Voratas
Kachitvichyanukul,
Dean of SET

An alumnus of AIT (Industrial Engineering and Management -
IEM’76), Prof. Voratas received his PhD in Industrial
Engineering, from Purdue University, USA. He started his teaching
career at AIT as an Associate Professor in the Industrial Systems
Engineering Program in 1998. Before that, his industrial experiences
included full time technical positions in Fortune 500 Companies
such as Compaq Computer Corporation and Motorola in the U.S.A. He had
also worked as a consultant for SEMATECH, USA, in the capacity of
technical coordinator of the future factory program for the
microelectronics industry in early 1990s.

Prof. Voratas brings over 30 years of extensive experience in
industrial, managerial, and teaching research in the areas of
simulation and modelling of manufacturing systems. Besides his academic
activities, he has also served in various advisor capacities to
companies and government agencies. His recent research interest is in
the development of metaheuristic algorithms for large-scale
combinatorial problems.

His area of specialization is in modeling and simulation of large-scale
industrial systems.

Professor C.
Visvanathan
, Dean of SERD

Prof. Visvanathan graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Chennai with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1981. He
earned a Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from
AIT in 1984, and a PhD in Chemical/Environmental Engineering from
Institut du Genie Chimique, Institut National Polytechnique de
Toulouse, France, in 1988.

He started his teaching career at as an Assistant Professor in
Environmental Engineering and Management Program in July 1991. He was
promoted to Associate Professor in the Environmental Engineering
and Management Program in July 1994, and to the rank of Professor in
Environmental Engineering and Management Program in July 2001.

Prof. C. Visvanathan is now the AIT’s Principal Investigator of the
Regional Knowledge Hub on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, which was jointly
established in 2006  by ADB, AIT, UNEP, and UNESCAP. He also
spearheaded the sustainable water resource management and wastewater
reuse project in Vietnam in 2010.

Prof. Visvanathan served as a consultant to the UNEP-Industry and
Environment Office in Paris in 1991. In 1988-90 he worked for the
International Training Centre for Water Resources Management in France
as Project Engineer/Environment Engineer in the Asia Division.

His research interest are: Membrane Technology,  Integrated Solid
Waste Management,  Water and Wastewater Treatment,  Cleaner
production / Sustainable Production and Consumption, and Industrial
Environment Management.

Dr. Donyaprueth
Krairit
, Dean of SOM

Dr. 'Donya' holds a Ph.D. in Telecommunication Technology, Management,
and Policy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She
received her Master’s degree from the University of Colorado at
Boulder, U.S.A. and her B.S. in Computer Science from Thammasat
University, Thailand.

Dr. Donya joined AIT in September 2002 as an Assistant Professor in SOM
and was later promoted to an Associate Professor in 2009. Prior to
joining AIT, she was a consultant in telecommunication consulting firms
in the U.S. and a guest speaker at Harvard University and Tufts
University, U.S.A. She also taught at the Department of Computer
Science, Thammasat University and Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
In addition to her teaching role, she has served as a consultant and
advisor to public and private organizations including the Royal Thai
Government, the Thailand National Electrical Engineering/Electronics,
Computer, Telecommunications and Information Technology Association
(ECTI), the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center
(NECTEC) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency
(NSTDA).

Her research has been in the field of telecommunications and
sustainable development, telecommunication policy, E-government and
digital divide, economic and policy implications of technologies,
E-commerce, and IT systems in both public and private sectors, with
particular focus on Asian countries and the U.S.