By Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is honored to acknowledge and express its gratitude to Dr. Kallidaikurichi Easwaran Seetha Ram, M.Eng. 1986 Batch, Industrial Engineering & Management Program, a distinguished alumnus whose commitment to his alma mater has taken the form of a generous donation of THB 1 million in support of Transportation Engineering research and development at AIT.
Dr. Seetha Ram’s contribution has been designated with a purpose firmly anchored in preparing and conducting research in the transportation engineering field at AIT. The fund is intended to mobilize meaningful support across a spectrum of research activities, including scholarship credits for graduate students in the Transportation Engineering (TRE) program, research assistant and associate salaries, conference attendance for students and researchers, journal publication fees, research and development-focused outreach, and the professional development of faculty and staff. In keeping with Dr. Seetha Ram’s philosophy of purposeful giving, the donation is directed exclusively toward substantive research and development activities and is not intended for non-essential or miscellaneous expenses that fall outside the core mission of advancing transportation engineering scholarship. Notably, Dr. Seetharam’s M.Eng. study at AIT was titled – Computer Simulation for Bus Transportation Planning, which is befitting to the purpose of this generous donation.
Dr. Seetha Ram obtained his Doctor of Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1990, with Professor Hideo Nakamura (President Emeritus of Tokyo City University) as his thesis supervisor. He earned his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He currently serves as Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, Fellow and Task Manager for the Gates Foundation partnership at the ADB Institute, and Special Advisor to East Japan Railways Company (JR East) for India High Speed Rail.
AIT President Professor Pai-Chi Li expressed profound appreciation for Dr. Seetha Ram’s generous gesture, noting that the donation arrives at a pivotal time to bolster AIT’s research excellence in transportation engineering, an area vital to sustainable regional development, and also its reflection of the values that AIT has long stood for: excellence, service, and a shared commitment to advancing knowledge for the regional development and the world. He conveyed that AIT is honored to have alumni of Dr. Seetha Ram’s caliber who remain deeply invested in the institution’s academic mission, and expressed his hope that this contribution would inspire fellow alumni to similarly give back and strengthen AIT’s research capacity for future generations.
Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe, Executive Director of Development & External Affairs – Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs, extended sincere gratitude to Dr. Seetha Ram on behalf of AIT’s leadership, faculty, and the entire alumni community. He also thanked Dr. Ayushman Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering, for playing a central coordinating role in facilitating this contribution. He highlighted that targeted support of this nature, directed specifically at the real costs of conducting and disseminating research will make a direct and immediate difference to graduate students and early-career researchers.
Dr. Seetha Ram, reflecting on his time at AIT and the motivation behind his contribution, shared that he cherishes the memories of a multicultural academic environment of his student days and expressed his gratitude to his teachers and mentors, namely, Professors Dirk Van Oudhesden, Mario Tabucanon, Okitsugu Fujiwara, Khalid Saeed, (late) Fumio Nishino and Kazuaki Miyamoto. He noted that he is proud of AIT’s contribution as one of the premier universities of graduate learning in Asia. Having spent over 30 years in various domains, including the transportation sector, Dr. Seetha Ram mentioned that this personal donation made jointly with his wife was a natural way to support research in a field central to his career. He expressed confidence in the faculty’s stewardship of the fund, stating clearly that the donation is an act of trust.
Dr. Ayushman Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering, expressed profound gratitude to Dr. Seetha Ram for his generosity and his trust in AIT’s Transportation Engineering program. Dr. Bhatt acknowledged that Dr. Seetha Ram’s decades of experience at the frontiers of transportation, infrastructure, and international development make his support all the more significant not only as a financial contribution, but as an expression of confidence in the AIT’s Transportation Engineering Program’s direction and potential.
This contribution stands as a powerful testament to the spirit of giving back—and to the lifelong bond that connects AIT’s global community of over 27,000 alumni to the institution that shaped their journeys. AIT looks forward to the continued engagement with Dr. Seetha Ram and his example will continue to inspire alumni around the world to invest in the next generation of scholars, engineers, and leaders who will carry AIT’s legacy forward.
