Editor’s Note: As previewed in this earlier CALS Notes post, Mark Sorrells – professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics in the School of Integrative Plant Science – spent his spring break with postdoctoral associate Julio Isidro Sánchez in Thailand teaching a special workshop on genomic selection at Kasetsart University. Sorrells sent this travelogue from the road …
Julio and I arrived late at night in Bangkok on Saturday March 28. The next day Dr. Chomdej (Dao) picked us up and took us to Kamphaeng Saen where the agriculture college of Kasetsart University is located. On our way we stopped at the Grand Palace, a truly spectacular complex of temples and statues.
Our hotel (Saen Palm Hotel) was located just adjacent to campus about 2-3 miles from the laboratory where we conducted the course. We were provided with bicycles so that we could freely travel back and forth to campus.
Our class started on Monday morning. There were 41 participants including 15 from companies, 15 from government institutions and the rest were students or faculty, all from Thailand. The class was taught in an excellent classroom set up with computers, wi-fi, LCD projector and video recording equipment.
The class consisted of two lectures, each 1 ½ hours long in the morning, and two hands-on laboratory sessions, each 1 ½ hours long in the afternoon. The knowledge base of the participants varied widely but genomic selection technology was new to all of them. I presented the lectures and Julio taught the labs. Each day they provided us with different kinds of fruit at breaks including mango, rose apple, Jack fruit, pineapple, watermelon etc. On Wednesday, Center Director Pongthep Akratanakul was present and we took a group picture in front of the center.
That evening we attended a reception at the center where they served a special black rice dish. Another evening after class we visited a local campus market where there was an amazing variety of foods, fruits, vegetables, and drinks. Half of the market was dedicated to non-food items of all sorts.
Another evening several of us went to a local ice cream shop and enjoyed various kinds of cake and ice cream or sherbet.
We found the participants to be very interested in genomic selection and they worked hard to understand the technology. We really enjoyed getting to know everyone. Our hosts, Julapark Chunwongse and Ornubol Chomdej did a great job of arranging everything and were always very helpful.
