Debra Wallace - Pauline Chiu - Princess Chulabhorn - Ada Yonath

Princess Chulabhorn graduated from Kasetsart University with a Bachelor of Science degree, First Class Honors, in 1979, and received her doctorate in organic chemistry from Mahidol University in 1985. She established the Chulabhorn Foundation in 1986 and the Chulabhorn Research Institute in 1987. Her main fields of interest are environmental conservation, the use of natural products, and toxicology.

She has been active in the area of Natural Products chemistry particularly as it impacts Organic Synthesis, Medicinal Chemistry and Environmental Science. In chemistry she has been recognized internationally through various awards, most recently the Nagoya Medal from the Chemical Society of Japan. In medicine, her institute has an active research collaboration with Novartis to develop drugs based on natural products; CRI also works closely with WHO, the Swiss Tropical Institute and various UN organizations to find and develop ways of treating tropical diseases such as malaria through pharmaceutically active natural products. In environmental science, her institute has been recognized as a United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) center of excellence and she received the EMS Hollaender Award for work in the area of environmental toxicology and mutagenesis.

In addition to the numerous research achievements she and her institute have made, she is an important motivational figure as a princess, a woman and an Asian. Throughout the world monarchs continue to persist, but rare are the examples who show academic prowess and a sincere dedication to science.

Princess Chulabhorn does not need to be a practicing chemist or to lead an international institute in Natural Products research, but she is dedicated to it as a career and personal passion. Such an action emphasizes the worth of such activities. As a woman, she has assumed a leadership role in a life science area and from her position as President of the CRI has made it clear that there are no gender boundaries to the pursuit and achievement of excellence.