Kanchana Kanchanasut honoured with service award for pioneering Thailand's Internet
The Internet Society today announced that its prestigious Jonathan B Postel Service Award was presented to Kanchana Kanchanasut for her three decades of persistent pioneering work and for enabling countless others to spread the Internet across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Kanchana was selected by an international award committee comprised of former Jonathan B Postel award winners which placed particular emphasis on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own specific actions.
Kanchana was among the first to bring the Internet to Thailand in the 1980s. In 1986, she teamed up with a Thai colleague and together they built the first computer network at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), which enabled email conversations with computer scientists outside the country.
After working to increase connections beyond Thailand, with many other countries in the region and the global networking community through the 1990s, Kanchana set up the Internet Education and Research Laboratory (interLAB) at AIT, which educates and supports a steady stream of Internet computer science and engineering students from all across Asia. In 2015, Kanchana started the Bangkok Internet Exchange (BKNIX), the first open and neutral Internet Exchange Point in Southeast Asia.
“Kanchana’s devotion and pioneering work has helped extend the Internet to people both in Thailand and the across southeast Asia,” said Gonzalo Camarillo, chair of the Internet Society Board of Trustees, who presented the award to Kanchana. “Beyond the networking infrastructure, her work has spread understanding about the Internet across academia, industry and government.”
The Postel Award was established by the Internet Society to honour individuals or organisations that, like Jon Postel, have made outstanding contributions to the data communications community. The award is focused on sustained and substantial technical contributions, service to the community, and leadership.
The Internet Society presented the award, including a US$20,000 (Bt709,000) honorarium and a crystal engraved globe, during the 97th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) held in Seoul this week.
