Southeast Asia Research and Capacity Building Initiatives

Buffalo State College

The Department of Geography and Planning has developed a number of research, educational exchange, and capacity-building initiatives in Southeast Asia that complement the department and college’s ongoing work in China (http://www.buffalostate.edu/centers/ccs/newsletter/pdf/ccs_f04.pdf).

 

It has been our philosophy to combine research efforts with capacity building, particularly in Cambodia, and while conducting research to promote interaction and exchange between Buffalo State faculty and students and faculty and students at universities in Southeast Asia. Just as our educational mission extends to experiences and training for K-12 students and in-service teacher training throughout New York State (e.g. http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/NYGA/), we also are working with schools and teachers in Southeast Asia.

 

The topical focus of our efforts is human impact on the environment, but we believe that it is essential to fully integrate social and economic perspectives within the scientific and engineering approaches to environmental problems with the goal of developing effective environmental planning and management solutions. To this end, we work with Southeast Asian universities, government agencies, NGOs, and the private sector in our initiatives.

Happenings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graduate student Joel Bernosky was featured in the Buffalo State Annual Report for his work on potable water in Cambodia.  Click here to view the write-up. 

Ms. Ratchadawan Ngoen-klan, a Ph.D. student from the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand will spend the next six months in our department as part of her Royal Golden Jubilee (RGJ) scholarship from the government of Thailand. Ms. Ngoen-klan and her supervisor, Dr. Kom Sukontason, have worked with Dr. Irvine and several Buffalo State undergraduate

students on various environmental projects in Thailand and Cambodia over the past four years. In Buffalo, Ms. Ngoen-klan will get advanced training in water quality assessment, GIS, and pollution prevention for the hospitality sector. Also as part of the RGJ program, Dr. Sukontason will visit the department in the fall, 2008 semester, and Dr. Irvine will visit Chiang Mai in 2009 and 2010.

Ratchadawan Ngoen-klan

on the Niagara River

Dr. Kom Sukontason

(in red) working with

 Buffalo State and

 Chiang Mai students

in Chiang Mai

 

Dr. Thammarat Koottatep, Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand, will visit the department at the end of August, 2009. He will make a presentation about his research on wastewater treatment in constructed wetlands and also will discuss opportunities for closer collaboration with AIT. Dr. Koottatep hosted two of our undergraduate students as part of the NSF undergraduate research grant in May-June, 2008. Dr. Irvine provided seminar presentations about CSO issues in the U.S. and Cambodia and hands-on training with PCSWMM as part of Dr. Koottatep’s graduate course at AIT, Design of Water Supply and Wastewater Systems.

Dr. Thammarat Koottatep, center.