UMass Amherst Professor Advising Thailand’s Commission on Higher Education

Sept. 23, 2008

Contact:

Guy Lanza 413/545-3747

AMHERST, Mass. – Guy Lanza, director of the environmental sciences program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been appointed as a technical advisor to the Commission on Higher Education of Thailand.

He is one of three experts who will work with the commission’s Science and Technology Postgraduate Education and Research Development Office (PERDO) to develop new multidisciplinary education and research initiatives. The team will complete site visits to evaluate and advise on the further development of a Center of Excellence on Environmental Health, Toxicology, and Management of Chemicals in Bangkok.

Lanza says the Royal Thai government envisions the new program creating and nurturing a new cadre of academic staff and researchers in science and technology and to provide excellence in postgraduate education and research in Thailand. Although the headquarters will be located in Bangkok, the plan is to link the intellectual and laboratory assets available in eight Thai universities as a center of excellence that will develop high quality research-driven graduate programs that will attract industrial partnerships and support.

“The idea is to combine and integrate appropriate faculty expertise at the different schools to produce novel teaching and research experiences that effectively address regional and global environmental challenges,” says Lanza, who has a long-term relationship with Mahidol University in Bangkok and, more recently, with Burapha University in Bangsaen.

Mahidol University, one of the two original universities in Thailand, has several campuses with a total of 24,000 students and is recognized as one of the leading universities in Southeast Asia. It was recently ranked as the top university in Thailand for both teaching and research. Two new campuses are being established in Kanchanaburi and Nakhon Sawan provinces to increase educational opportunities for the other regions of Thailand. The university is organized into 16 faculties, which are responsible for both research and teaching, The university also has eight institutes mainly focused on research, six colleges, primarily devoted to teaching, and seven centers that provide academic services.

Burapha University is a public university located about 100 kilometers from Bangkok, in the eastern seaboard area of Thailand. The campus covers an area of 256 acres and has an enrollment of 12,000 students. It has 15 colleges in the arts and humanities, medicine, engineering and science, and an institute of marine science.

Lanza currently coordinates a collaborative visiting scholars program in environmental biology, ecology and toxicology involving the environmental sciences program and International Programs Office at UMass Amherst and several Thai universities.

The visiting scholars program is currently hosting Patarika Soongsombat, who is sponsored by the Thailand Research Fund, an agency similar to the National Science Foundation.

Soongsombat is working on a phytoremediation research project that is developing the use of vegetative filter strips to remove pesticides from turfgrass and other contaminated environments. The project is centered in the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Lab and is directed by John Clark, professor in veterinary and animal sciences at UMass Amherst.

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