Floods Threaten Thai Innovation Hub

A campus housing several national research institutes and private companies braces for rising waters in the Southeast Asian country.

Written byBob Grant

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A flooded home in Lopburi province, to the north of the science parkFLICKR, PHUMPHAT CHETIYANONTH EU/ECHO

As Thailand suffers the worst flooding it's seen in 50 years, researchers, managers, and other employees have evacuated a science park about 30 miles north of Bangkok in the southern part of the country. Though the raging waters began to recede Sunday, the floods have killed nearly 300 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage to roads, rail lines, homes, and businesses since torrential monsoon rains soaked Thailand starting in late July.

Administrators at the Thailand Science Park (TSP)—which houses four national research institutes, laboratories affiliated with dozens of private research companies, and thousands of workers—decided last week to shut down the campus and evacuate all employees except for essential personnel who were hastily building sandbag floodwalls to protect infrastructure.

On Sunday (October ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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