The 2008 RTSA Young Railway Engineer Dr Sakdirat Kaewunruen has just received a top PhD thesis award from the National Research Council of Thailand. He received the first prize for the Engineering and Industrial Research category. A fellow University of Wollongong (UOW) Mathematics Ph D student Dr Duangkamon Baowan was awarded the first prize for the Natural Science and Mathematics category.
Dr Kaewunruen is a joint winner of the Distinguished PhD Thesis award in the Engineering and Industrial Research category awarded together with a student from the University of California at Los Angeles.
At UOW, he developed a new design methodology for railway prestressed concrete sleepers, under the supervision of Associate Professor Alex Remennikov.
His discovery has led to the benefits of optimal concrete usage that is found to beneficial from financial, environmental and human perspectives. This discovery won him the “2009 National Engineering Bursary Award” from the Concrete Institute of Australia.
He is presently a specialist with RailCorp, and has served in Engineers Australia’s Interview Assessment Panel for the Chartered Status of Young Engineers.
Dr Kaewunruen is also a member of the External Advisory Committee for the Construction Engineering Program at the University of Western Sydney; is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Thailand; and also an Endeavour Executive Award holder, which he will spend visiting the Railway Technical Research Institute in Tokyo, Japan.
(With thanks to UOW media service)
