Company president Mr. Takefumi Shimoda, and sales division director
Mr. Nopporn Tia, visited AIT on 2 July 2014 to finalize the pledge
worth US$11,900 while meeting with Prof. Chettiyappan Visvanathan, Dean
of the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) and
Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto, Interim Vice President for Resource
Development.
At the meeting, the Kurita-GK officials identified their preferred
candidate who will be offered a place in the Environmental Engineering
and Management (EEM) field of study for entry in the August 2014
semester. Kurita-GK will fund 50% of the total costs of the Master’s
program while AIT / SERD will shoulder the remaining half. Prof.
Yamamoto initiated the new partnership that brought Kurita-GK together
with SERD.
Prof. Visvanathan confirmed that the arrangement was SERD's first
cost-sharing collaboration with industry to fund student scholarships.
Thanking Mr. Shimoda, the dean added that he looked forward towards
similar cooperation in the future.
Samutprakarn-based Kurita-GK operates extensively in Thailand and is
Asia’s market leader in technologies for industrial water treatment.
The firm offers a comprehensive range of products and services in
advanced water and environmental management.
Mr. Shimoda said the firm would be open to explore research
opportunities for students of AIT’s SERD and would consider additional
scholarship opportunities for students from Cambodia, Lao PDR and
Vietnam, all countries where the company plans to expand its
operations.
The only condition the company put forth for its support was that the
selected candidate’s research thesis be on a topic related to water
treatment. Following the meeting, the officials visited the EEM
program’s laboratories. They also showed keen interest for Kurita-GK to
participate in the AIT Career Fair planned November 2014.
Ms. Sarina Pradhan Thapa, Program Officer, SERD, also attended the
meeting.
