News

Dr. Tej Bunnag (fourth from left) is
recognized as 
"Person of the Year" during Thailand Tatler's anniversary.
(Photo
courtesy of Thailand Tatler)

Dr. Tej Bunnag, who was recently reinstated back as the
Chairman of the AIT Board of Trustees, was recognized as Thailand
Tatler magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2008.

At the presentation ceremony for the award at the magazine’s 17th
Anniversary Celebration held in Bangkok, Dr. Tej made a reference in
his speech to his brief but significant tenure as foreign minister of
Thailand.

According to Dr. Joydeep Dutta, Director of
the Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology, and Associate Dean School
of Engineering and Technology, the new master’s program in
nanotechnology is planned for launch from the January 2009 intake. This
is stated to be a very unique and interesting, application-oriented
multidisciplinary program that integrates physics / engineering
physics, chemistry / chemical engineering, material science / material
engineering.

By Natnipha Vimuktanon

Asian Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Udaya
Rathnayaka, a student of food engineering and bioprocess
technology at the School of Environment, Resources and Development,
says he has found a better way to detect the deadly pathogen salmonella
found in chicken meat.

Mr. Rungrot Kitsaboonloha , one of the members from the Center of
Excellence (CoE) in Nanotechnology received an award for paper entitled
"Direct writing growth of ZnO rods by Ink Jet Technique" at the "2nd
Thailand Nanotechnology Conference 2008" which was held in Phuket from
13 -15 August 2008. Mr. Rungrot was ranked second.

On 16 September, AIT President Said Irandoust attended
the welcome dinner for the training program on "Integrated Coastal Zone
Planning and Management using Geoinformation Technologies" (15-26
September 2008) organized by Dr. Nitin K.
Tripathi, RS&GIS field of study, School of Engineering and
Technology.

AIT congratulates of Dr Nitin Kumar Tripathi, Associate Professor
in SET-RSGIS, as Director for Academic Quality Assurance and
Accreditation under Office of the Vice Presidents. Dr. Tripathi joins
the ranks of three recently established directorial positions that was
opened to oversee new highly promising initiatives.

Following a conference call with Mr. Liberato Bautista,
President CONGO, and Mr. Werner H. Schleiffer, Executive
Coordinator (Geneva), International Secretariat Management Team, CONGO,
Geneva, AIT has been awarded the rights to host the CONGO board meeting
which is scheduled on 12-17 December 2008. While the CONGO board
meeting proper will be taking place on 14-16 December, AIT host a
dinner on the eve of 14 December where the AIT Board of Trustee members
and selected international organizations will be invited to interact
with the CONGO board members.

After visits and exchanges between AIT and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Finland on the institute’s possible engagement in
replicating a Finnish led initiative called the “Energy and
Environment Partnership with Central America”, AIT received an
important delegation from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 17
September 2008. The framework of the Finnish cooperation policy for the
Mekong region includes developing small and concrete projects to
address poverty alleviation and sustainability development while
dealing with issues related to environment, forestry, energy, climate
change, and related themes.

AIT and the University of Luphana, Luneburg, Germany has recently been
discussing tackling more activities geared towards hydrology.

Under the umbrella of the institue’s Golden Jubilee Fundraising
Campaign (GJFC) initiatives, Professor. Dr. Ing.

On 15 September, AIT President Said Irandoust and
Professor Peter Haddawy, Vice President for Academic
Affairs, met Dr. Srikantha Herath, Senior Academic
Programme Officer, Environment and Sustainable Development (UNU-ESD)
Programme, United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan, and AIT
alumnus, to discuss a possible joint degree program to foster higher
education in the Asia Pacific region.