Thanik Lertcharnrit

In 2016, Dr. Lertcharnrit received a prestigious Fulbright Award for the project, Agricultural Stability and Instability in Prehistoric Central Thailand. This award led to a visiting scholarship at Washington State University, which focused on questions including " (1) When did rice and millet agriculture first arrive in Central Thailand?, (2) Did rice agriculture spread to Thailand from East Asia or from India?, (3) How did humans respond to and adapt their agricultural systems in the face of climatic changes over the past 2,000 years?, and (4) What were the climatic conditions that early agriculturalists in Thailand faced?". This work led to important publications on paleoethnobotany, including "Three Thousand Years of Farming Strategies in Central Thailand."

Other key awards include the Outstanding New Researcher Award, Thailand Research Fund (2007), Translation Grant, American Council of Learned Societies, USA (2006), Sigma-Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research, The Scientific Research Society, USA (2000), Phyllis and Richard Daugherty Scholarship for Graduate Student Excellence, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, USA (1998), The Prince of Songkla University Foundation Research Grant (1992).

Thanik Lertcharnrit is known for his contributions to the field of cultural resource management, public archaeology, and the advances he has brought in the field of Thai archeology. Lertcharnrit wrote the first book in the Thai language on cultural resource management, and translated the first book on human evolution. His translation of Kenneth Feder's (2003) book, "The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory" was a major accomplishment that brought modern archaeological research to a Thai audience. His status as a leader in southeast Asian CRM led to his being asked to serve as an editor for the substantial Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, and to author a seminal work on Thai CRM. Thailand: Cultural Heritage Management. Lertcharnrit has sought to pioneer the use of multiple scientific methods in Thai archeology, in addition to getting the local communities involved in the preservation and conservation of archeological sites. He is involved with numerous interdisciplinary research collaborations with global scholars, as exemplified by his work with American archaeologists from Eckerd College and North Carolina State University at the Promtin Tai site, a historic and prehistoric cemetery in central Thailand. He is a recognized expert on Thai archaeology, and has worked on diverse projects and excavations in central Thailand for more than thirty years. Professor Lertcharnrit presents the results of his research to both academic and public audiences, in both Thai and English. His topical interests are diverse and include the development of complexity in southeast Asia, metallurgy, mortuary studies, isotope analysis, shell production and exchange, among other topics.

Following his graduation from Silpakorn, Lertcharnrit secured a job as a government officer and was assigned to the Pattani province. Working with the locals present there, he excavated historic sites of the Dvaravati period in the ancient city of Yarang. This continued for a total of eight years until he was informed by one of his former professors at Silpakorn University of a scholarship to enroll at a masters program in one of five foreign countries (USA, England, France, Australia, and Canada), though there was only one available position for archeology students. Managing to pass the exam to he decided to study in the United States, a choice that came along with the requirement to study Cultural Resource Management as part of the PHD program. When deciding what school he wanted to go to Lertcharnrit decided to apply for Washington State University and Ohio State University, choosing to accept enrollment into Washington State university due to the important status of one of the professors, William D. Lipe, in the field of cultural resource management. William D. Lipe would later become Lertcharnrit's advisor upon his enrolment. Graduation from Washington State University with a masters degree in archeology and anthropology, Lertcharnrit went on to get his PhD in 2001. Following this in 2003 Lertcharnrit was hired as an assistant professor at Silpakorn University in their archeology program, and as worked there as an assistant professor until 2006 when he became an associate professor.

Thanik Lertcharnrit (Thai: ธนิก เลิศชาญฤทธ์, formerly Sawang Lercharnrit; born 1964) is a Thai Archeologist and Anthropologist and Professor at Silpakorn University. He specializes in southeast Asian archaeology and the public education and perception of archeology, with a focus on public Thai cultural heritage. Professor Lertcharnrit has made many contributions to the field of Cultural Resource Management (CRM), and acted as a pioneering figure and advocate for global public archaeology.

Thanik Lertcharnrit rose from humble beginnings to become a leader in southeast Asian archaeology and one of the first native Thai scholars to earn a Ph.D. in archaeology. As documented in interviews and transcripts focusing on leaders in archaeology and Cultural Resource Management (CRM), Professor Lertcharnrit was born in a rural Thai village in the province of Khon Kaen in 1964. Being born into a farming family in the poorest region of Thailand, his father encouraged him to go to university so he could live a better life. After going to the elementary school in his village he went to a different district for Matthayom Ton (junior high school) and Matthayom Plai (high school), spending 11th and 12th grade at the demonstration school in Khon Kaen University. After graduating from Matthayom Plai he wanted to be able to go to university in Bangkok, and though it was very expensive to live there his father said he would sell their cattle and land in order to allow him to afford to live there. While searching for universities there he came across Silpakorn University,and decided to pursue entrance into their archeology program and attempt to pass it's very competitive entrance exam. He decided on pursuing an archeology degree due to the many archeological sites around his village, a fact that would allow him to return to work there while also being one of the first archeologists from the northeast of Thailand. After passing the entrance exam he fell in love with archeology, managing to graduate from Silpakorn in three and a half years in 1985.