Spotlight on Alumni

Sansanalak Rachdawong, Ph.D., PPWS, 1999.

Sansanalak Rachdawong (Ph.D. PPWS, 1999) is an assistant professor in the Division of Biotechnology in the School of Bioresources and Technology at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Thailand. As a graduate student in PPWS, Rachdawong developed a DNA-based PCR test to differentiate causal agents of take-all of wheat, which greatly improved management of this disease. As a researcher at KMUTT, she discovered an endophytic fungus associated with Jasmine rice and was able to transfer the endophyte to other rice cultivars grown in Thailand to confer the Jasmine rice characteristic to those varieties. In 2002 Rachdawong was recognized by the Thai government as one of the top ten scientists in Thailand.