Qatar Foundation Announces Keynote Address by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand at the Sixth International Conference on Environmental Mutagens in Human Populations

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development will host the Sixth International Conference on Environmental Mutagens in Human Populations (ICEMHP) in Doha 26 – 29 March 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Centre. ICEMHP is part of a series of international conferences designed to identify solutions for important human health problems caused by environmental factors. Held for the first time in the Gulf Region, it aims to develop local, regional and global collaboration in identifying the environmental causes of DNA damage and in finding solutions to their impacts on human health. 

A highlight of the conference will be the keynote address by Professor Dr Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand who will speak to delegates and guests at ICEMHP’s opening session on 27 March. Her presentation, entitled Environmental Carcinogens: Exposure and Impacts on Children’s Health, will provide insight into environmental factors that are known to cause cancer and into how they may specifically influence children.   

Devoted to the development and promotion of scientific research, HRH Princess Chulabhorn is President and founder of the Chulabhorn Research Institute and a Professor of Chemistry at Mahidol University. Her special research interests are in the chemistry of natural products, Thai medicinal plants, environmental health problems of developing countries and cancer. She was the third person to be awarded UNESCO's Einstein Gold Medal for her continuous effort in promoting scientific collaboration in Asia and the Pacific, and she was the first Asian to be invited to join the Royal Society of Chemistry in England, as an Honorary Fellow. Among many awards she has received for her work is the Ramazzini Award in 2009, conferred on international scientists deemed by the Collegium Ramazzini to have made outstanding contributions in occupational and environmental medicine. 

HRH Princess Chulabhorn has also received international recognition for her scientific accomplishments in her appoint­ments to various United Nations posts, including being Special Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme and member of the Special High-Level Council for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction of the United Nations. She has also been visiting professor at Universities in Germany, Japan and the United States and has received numerous honorary doctoral degrees from universities in US, UK, Japan and other countries. 

Organized by Qatar Foundation, Environmental Mutagen Society and the International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies, ICEMHP 2012 will consider, among many topics, the local and regional aspects of genetic testing, risk assessment and policy-making to protect both human health and the environment. 

In addition to HRH Princess Chulabhorn, the conference will be honored by the attendance of many other distinguished speakers and delegates, including Kirk R. Smith, Member of US National Academy of Sciences and co-awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize.