Kanchana Kanchuanasut

Affiliation:	Asian Institute of Technology
Country:	Thailand
Formerly a member of the ICANN Board

Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut is the "Mother of the Internet" in Thailand and has been involved in many Internet connectivity initiatives in other Southeast Asian countries. She championed the idea of email in that region in the 1980s. She directs the Internet Education and Research Laboratory at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, where she is a professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Technology. She has been the Acting Vice President for Research at AIT.

Career

Kanchanasut ran the first experimental domestic research and education network in Thailand in 1988, connecting five universities with dial-up connections to the Australian Academic and Research Network. She also registered the .th domain name and administered it since 1988. In 1991, Dr. Kanchanasut’s efforts led its TCP/IP connection to the global network.

Her current research focuses on challenged and emergency networks, digital media communication, and tele-education. She has been the executive director of AVIST, the Association of South East Asian Nations’ Virtual Institute of Science and Technology.

Education

• PhD in Computer Science from the University of Melbourne
  
• BSc from the University of Queensland