Dr Songpol Somsri

had his B.Sc (Hort), M.Sc (Hort) from kasetsart University  Bangkok, Thailand and Phd in Land and Food (Plant breeding and Biotechnology) from The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia  with specialisation in fruit breeding and conservation such as Durian, Papaya, Citrus, Pomelo, Rambutan, Mango etc. He joined the Horticulture Research Institute, Department of Agriculture, Thailand as Agricultural Scientist and he is presently working as DOA Senior Advisory in Plant Production and Chief of Senior Expert.

He has 37 years of experience in the breeding of fruit crops via conventional and Mutation viz., Durian,  Papaya, Citrus, Pomelo, ect. Over the years he has helped in the establishment of Durian and Tropical fruits ‘Field Genebank’ with a collection comprising of 800 accessions of durian and various varieties of Tropical fruits.  He has developed and released 6 hybrids in durian. He has published fruit catalogues on citrus, mango, mangosteen  and rambutan. He has contributed to book chapters and has more than 100 article and research papers to his credit.

He has visited several countries viz Australia, Austria, China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia , Philippines, Vietnam, Kolea, New Zealand, South Africa, Sudan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka , etc. He has handled several foreign aided projects with external funding viz., UNEP-GEF project on TFT species and livelihood security, ADB -TFT project on Tropical fruits. He is also one of the authors who helped in developing ‘Bioversity International Descriptor on durian, mangosteen, rambutan, mango ect and the development of Thailand DOA  DUS guidelines and Thailand standard for Tropical fruits

He has guided several MSc and PhD students. He is also the recipient of  outstanding KU student award from the ‘Society of KU.

International Symposia on Tropical and Temperate Horticulture