page_title: Varavudh Suteethorn
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Varavudh Suteethorn / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Mahasarakham University
context_page_description: Varavudh Suteethorn, or Warawut Suteethorn is a Thai geologist and palaeontologist. He is the current director of the Palaeontological Research and Education Centre, Mahasarakham University. He is best known for his work on vertebrate palaeontology in northeastern Thailand, having contributed to the discovery of many fossil taxa and dig sites in the Khorat Plateau, as a part of a long-standing collaboration between Thai and French scientists.
context_section_description: Varavudh Suteethorn was born in the Nakhon Pathom Province of central Thailand on October 10, 1948. He obtained a bachelor's degree in geology from the Chiang Mai University in 1967, and started working at the Geological Survey Division of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in 1974 as he began his career in geology. While working for the DMR, Suteethorn gained expertise on Thailand's northeastern Isan region, located in the Khorat Plateau. His geological mapping of those areas led to the discovery of various new fossil sites, which have since yielded the majority of Thailand's palaeontological discoveries.
  Vertebrate palaeontology came into prominence in Thailand in 1980, when Thai geologists from the DMR cooperated with French scientists to begin expeditions in the Khorat Plateau. Suteethorn, one of the first members of the dinosaur expedition team, learned how to preparare and conserve fossils in France and Canada and in 1986 was granted a Certificate of Vertebrate Palaeontology by the University of Paris VI, France. The same year, the spinosaurid dinosaur species Siamosaurus suteethorni was named in honour of his palaeontological efforts in Thailand, by the French palaeontologist Éric Buffetaut and his Thai colleague Rucha Ingavat. Suteethorn has been head of the Thai dinosaur research team since 1992 and continues to find new dig sites, which are subject to cataloguing and routine checks from his team, although excavation has not begun in many of them.
  In 2006 Suteethorn was given the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's Skinner Award. In 2018, he received the Explorer Award from the National Geographic Society, during their annual Explorer's Festival. He is currently lecturer and director of the Palaeontological Research and Education Centre of Mahasarakham University.
caption: Mahasarakham University, Isan
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