Thirty-nine alumni from the Republic of Korea have contributed USD 20,118 towards the AIT Flood Emergency Fund for cleansing and rehabilitation of the AIT Mother campus. The donation was handed over to the AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust on 21 January 2012.
EBARA Corporation have donated one million Yen to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) to help AIT in its reconstruction and rebuilding efforts. The donation was made by a delegation of EBARA Corporation comprising of Mr. Kiyoshi Hirono, Executive General Manager; Mr. Katsufumi Nakano, Managing Director; and Ms. Kornkanok Naprasertjkul, Administrative and Office Manager at the AIT temporary office at Pacific Place Tower, Bangkok.
Today, Monday, 30 January 2012, was a milestone in AIT’s history, as it marked the coming into force of AIT’s international intergovernmental Charter. At the outset, AIT wishes to thank members of the AIT Board of Trustees and Executive Committee, past and present, who have dedicated so much of their time and effort in the process leading up to today, and all of our other stakeholders, especially alumni who helped pursue this matter, with their respective governments.
AIT’s 116th Graduation Ceremony on January 21, 2012 took on special significance as three new graduates became the first ever recipients of the dual master’s degree awarded from AIT and Polytech’Nice, France.
Recently, as prompted by the President of the AIT Alumni Association –Thailand Chapter, Mr. Thanin Bumrungsap, there have been a series of media articles posted on the Thai-language news website Matichon ONLINE, which are highly accusatory in nature and attack AIT’s effort to institute a new Charter, and thereby become a legal intergovernmental international organization.
AIT Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Tej Bunnag has explained the relevance of the new AIT Charter and the Institute’s exploration of public-private partnership (PPP) funding models to Thai newspaper Matichon.
AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust and Prof. Asit K. Biswas, founder of the Third World Centre for Water Management, Mexico, and member of the International Advisory Board, AIT, reflect on lessons learned from the recent flood in Thailand, as published by the English-language newspaper The Nation.
AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust has responded to a negative campaign against the new AIT Charter by AIT Alumni Association (AITAA)-Thailand Chapter President Mr. Thanin Bumrungsap.
Read the president’s open letter of 24 January 2012, below.
Three months to the day its campus was completely flooded, forcing the large-scale evacuation of all students, faculty, staff and residents, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) celebrated its 116th Graduation Ceremony on 21 January 2012.