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Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

(Summer 2002 - November 2006); GPA: 4.7/5.0

In Summer 2002, I started doing my research at MIT with Prof. Markus Zahn. The research was about the study of characteristics of Ferrofluid. It was a good opportunity for me to gain more experience with doing experiment.
In Fall 2002, I worked with Dr. Mandayam A Srinivasan on a project in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). The name of the project is Brain-to-Brain Communication and the goal is to get neuronal signals from auditory cortex of the brain of a monkey and to be able to communicate these signals by plugging them in the brain of the other monkey. I thought the project was very interesting and very fancy.
In Spring 2003, I fortunately passed the Technical Qualifying Exam of the EECS department. Yeah!!!!!
In Fall 2003, I would like to explore and learn more how brains actually work and do more hand-on research. I then worked with Prof. Matt Wilson in the Brain and Cognitive Science Department to explore how temporal information is processed in the hippocampus, a very important part of the brain where all information converges. I think it is pretty interesting and amazing how complicated the brains are. Also, what a hippocampus!!!!!
In Spring 2004, I started working on global precipitation estimation using data from microwave satellites with Prof. David H. Staelin, a former assistant director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in the Remote Sensing and Estimation Group (RSEG). This research group is one of the research groups in the RLE.
In April 2005, I was selected to be one of the ten finalists in the student prize paper competition of the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. I will go to the conference to present my paper in Seoul, Korea this July. I wish to do my best.
On May 2, 2005, I passed the last step for the Ph.D. qualifying exam. It is the Research Qualifying Exam of the EECS department. That's so cool !!!!
In July 2005, I was awarded the second prize in the student prize paper competition by IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society for the paper "Statistical Agreement between Observed Microwave Satellite Radiances and NWP Hydrometeors Including Hexagonal Plates and Rosettes".
I submitted my doctoral thesis proposal entitled "Passive Millimeter Wave Retrieval of Global Precipitation Utilizing Satellites and A Numerical Weather Prediction Model" on July 5, 2005 and it was approved by the EECS department on August 12, 2005.
In December 2005, the 2005 Student Prize Paper Awards were cited in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Newsletter.

In Spring 2006, I worked as a teaching assistant (TA) for the MIT course 6.013 "Electromagnetics and Applications". Being a TA is one of the requirements for doctoral degree.
I will defend my Ph.D. thesis on November 27, 2006. I will do my best!
Made it happen! I passed my thesis defense on November 27, 2006 and I submitted the final version of my thesis to the EECS department on November 30, 2006. Yes, that means I graduated with my Ph.D. degree. It has been four and a half years of hard working. I spent all last 3 years on nothing else but my research.
It is now time to start my career. I will go back to Thailand on December 22, 2006 and I will start working as a professor at Phuket Rajabhat University. I am looking forward to seeing my family in Thailand.
All my published papers could be found from this page.
There are about 50 Thai students at MIT in many different fields of study. We have a good Thai community here. We have a lot of parties and a lot of fun.
In my feeling, I would say that Cambridge and Boston are just fabulous places to live and study. They are my dream cities (except very cold time) and I really love them. Boston has almost everything you want, and Cambridge is more like an academic city. I am very happy to live and study here. :)
I attended the MIT Ph.D. hooding ceremony and commencement on June 7, and June 8, 2007, respectively. Yeah!
I was in one of the Thailand most-read newspapers "Matichon" on April 27, 2007, p. 34. Here is the news.
It was announced that I received the 2007 Best Ph.D. thesis award in the field of Engineering and Industrial Research from the National Research Council of Thailand. This is so cool! Here is the announcement from the NRCT.
I was interviewed in the column "Smart Image for Success" of a Thailand Magazine "Do you know", no. 2, vol. 5, pp. 69-74, March - April, 2008. (PDF)

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Ph.D. student, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

(Spring 2002); GPA: 4.0/4.0

During the time that I was waiting for the result of my application to MIT for the Fall 2002, I went to Georgia Tech and took some courses over there. It was on the 31st of December when I drove for many hours from NY to GA with my sister. It was a good experience but we were really tired though. It hardly has any snows in GA. However, amazingly, there was a snow storm at the night we arrived and we actually had to sleep in our car for the whole cold night.
It took me for a while to settle everything down and to adapt myself to a more competitive study system. Here, I gained more knowledge, experiences, patience, and maturity. After I was here for a month, I was notified that I got admitted to MIT. I still remember the moment when I knew the result of my MIT application. Anyway, I still kept studying at GATECH through that Spring 2002.
A week after I received the admission letter from MIT, Prof. Markus Zahn sent me an email asking if I am interested in working with him on the topic of MEMS devices based on Ferrofluid. I thought that it was such a good opportunity and accepted to start doing research in Summer 2002.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

M.S. in Electric Power Engineering

(Fall 2000 - Fall 2001); GPA: 4.0/4.0

I would say that studying at RPI is the critical change of my study life. From the one who was not so serious with study, I became a hard-working student and I had a lot of energy to study. I paid a lot of attention in all classes and studied so hard. I don't know why, but, at that time, I had a lot of attempt and confidence. By doing so, I received many great things in return. I graduated with 4.0/4.0 and I had very good relationships with faculties. Those brought me many great opportunities. The first good opportunity was to be accepted to GATECH in Spring 2002. And, of course, the second good opportunity was to get admitted to MIT in Fall 2002.
There were about 40 Thai students at RPI. Troy is a very quiet city and that is why RPI is a very good place to study. There was nothing much to do in free time. So, I and about 6 Thai friends had a lot of parties and a lot of fun almost every weekend. I am now missing that warm atmosphere. :)

State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY

(Summer 2000)

A Summer English course

I spent 2 months at SUNY at Albany taking an English course before I attend at RPI. It was nice time to relax. I had a lot of fun with my friends here who came from many different countries. Cool!
Although Albany is a quiet city, it is actually the capital of NY. It is about 15 minute-drive from Troy. That was the reason why I chose to take an English course here.

King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang , Bangkok, THAILAND

(April 1999)

B.E. (Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering)

Ladkrabang is one of the top engineering schools in Thailand. It is so far from my home. It took me at least 2 hours each leg from my home to KMITL. As I now look back, I could not imagine how I did that. However, it was not so painful because I had a lot of friends taking trains with me back and forth and it was also because of generosity of faculties who were not so strict with students to come to class on time. :)
At KMITL, I still did not focus much on study. I spent almost of the time with a group of my friends playing sports and enjoying life. We skipped a lot of classes. I didn't even know the lecturers of some courses I took.:( Anyway, I still used my old study strategy to spend about a month to study before the finals come and I survived.

Suankularb Vittayalai School, Bangkok, THAILAND

High School

"ผู้รู้ดีเป็นผู้เจริญ" is the slogan of the school. Suankularb is the best boy school in Thailand.
I had so much fun in high school. I enjoyed playing soccer with my friends everyday and every spare time we had. I think it was one of the happiest time of my life. I was not the one who was very serious with study. Actually, I am not a reading lover and I am so lazy sometimes. However, my studying style at that time was to spend 1 to 2 months just before the finals to catch up and I did it well.