Scientists bag climate-change awards

Three scientists have won awards for contributions to the United Nations' Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The three are from King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and Ramkhamhaeng University (RU) in Bangkok.

The IPCC has officially recognised Assoc Prof Sirintornthep Towprayoon, deputy director of the KMUTT's Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE); Dr Amnat Chidthaisong, an assistant professor of JGSEE's environment division; and RU's Assist Prof Kansri Boonpragob for having made substantial contributions to the IPCC's Nobel Peace Prize award.

The honour was recognition for their efforts in publicising the potential threats of global warming and climate change and for working tirelessly to get the attention of policy-makers.

In 2006 Sirintornthep was the lead author of the IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse-Gas Inventories.

"It is an honour. I never thought I would be one of the hundreds of scientists worldwide who helped the IPCC to win a Nobel Prize," she said.

Amnat was one of the lead authors of the 4th Assessment Report on the physical-science basis of climate change among about 450  scientists worldwide.

"I didn't want any praise from the IPCC. I worked for it because I want to use my abilities to present knowledge about climate change to the public and exchange knowledge with experts all over the world," Amnat said.

Kansri is an IPCC bureau member of Working Group I, the same group as Amnat. She is the group's Asia representative.She set the scope of the group's work, which was studying the physical-science basis of climate change, and allotted jobs to researchers in her group.

"I want to see an organisation set up in Thailand to make IPCC reports less technical so Thais can understand them better," Kansri said.