Thai, German scientists discuss tsunami topics

PHUKET CITY: Thai and German marine geologists gathered at the Royal Phuket City Hotel today for a seminar on a variety of tsunami-related topics.

The three-day seminar, from March 29 to 31, covers such topics as sea floor mapping, bathymetric surveys, numerical modeling of tsunami events, seismic surveys of the Andaman Sea, marine ecology and coastal management for handling disaster.

Speakers include experts from the Universities of Münster, Bremen and Kiel as well as Chulalongkorn University.

The seminar, entitled “Cooperative Research and Capacity Building: Ocean Geosciences, Marine Ecology and Natural Hazard Management” was organized jointly by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the governing body of the German scientific community.

NRCT Director Choosri Keedumrongkool told the Gazette that her agency has already signed Memorandum of Understanding with the DFG for the two organizations to support each other’s research efforts.

In his speech on the state of marine geosciences education in Thailand, Chulalongkorn Associate Professor Veerote Daorerk said there are probably fewer than 20 scientists and engineers in Thailand with advanced degrees in oceanography and marine geosciences.

As no university in Thailand currently offers specific degree programs in these areas, he proposed setting up an institute in Phuket to produce advanced degree students in these fields. He offered to organize the effort himself.