Peter van Welzen studied biology at the university of Leiden in the Netherlands, where he also worked as a PhD student, revising the genus Guioa in the Sapindaceae. He got a permanent research position in the then National Herbarium of the Netherlands, presently Naturalis Biodiversity Center, mainly working on Euphorbiaceae and related families for the Flora Malesiana Project, but also for the Flora of Thailand and the Flora of Singapore. He was appointed to a professorship in Leiden University holding the chair for Plant biogeography in the Tropics. His biogeographic studies have focussed on the discrimination of phytograpic regions, for instance in Thailand, but also Wallace’s line, historical biogeography, explaining the changes in the distributions of taxa and creating species distribution models to foretell the influence of climate change. Presently he concentrates on elucidating the pathways plants took to populate the Malaysian Archipelago.
Pranom obtained his PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 1990, and is currently professor emeritus at Khon Kaen University in Thailand. He received the Outstanding Biologist Award from the Science Society of Thailand in 2003 and the Sri Mor Din Daeng Award from Khon Kaen University in 2011, both presented by HRH Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and also the Dushdi Mala gold medal presented by King Rama X in 2021. Professor Pranom has researched the taxonomy of a broad range of Thai plant families and has published over 200 scientific papers. He has taught botany at Khon Kaen University since 1980 and after 1990 has supervised more MSc and PhD thesis students than any other Thai botany professor.
Susanne Renner is an evolutionary biologist, interested in plant sexual systems, plant/animal interactions, and in the occupation of space by plant lineages. Her approaches combine comparative biology and molecular phylogenetics. She has worked in Manaus, Brazil; at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and at universities in Aarhus (Denmark), Mainz (Germany), Saint Louis (USA), and Munich (Germany). From 2003-2020, she held the chair of systematic biology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and was the director of the Munich botanical garden and herbarium. She is now back in the US, where she is honorary professor in biology at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Research Associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
PhD and BSc from Chulalongkorn University, MS from University of Florida, teaching botany at Mahidol University since 1995, assistant professor since 2012 and Deputy Dean 2020-2023. Founding President of Sci-Art Network of Thailand for Natural Science Illustration since 1999 and Vice President of the Botany Society under Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand Patronage since 2016. Has an extensive publication record in Musaceae and other Thai plant families, based on a combination of detailed field-based observations and advanced laboratory work. Sasivimon received her PhD from Chulalongkorn University, and has been teaching botany at Mahidol University since 1995. She was appointed an assistant professor in 2012 and has been Deputy Dean since 2020. She is General Manager, Siam Interflorist Academy and founding President of Sci-Art Network of Thailand for Natural Science Illustration. She has an extensive publication record in Musaceae and other Thai plant families, based on a combination of detailed field based observations and advanced laboratory work.
