Pasuk Phongpaichit is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Thailand. She was born in a village outside Bangkok, went to Monash University, Australia on a Colombo Plan scholarship, and has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Her research has focused on practical issues and public policy including the sex industry, corruption, illegal economy, gambling, social movements, inequality, taxation, and most recently on land governance. Her publications (some co-authored) include From Peasant Girls to Bangkok Masseuses (1988); Corruption and Democracy in Thailand (1994); Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: Thailand’s Illegal Economy and Public Policy (1998); Thai Capital After the 1997 Crisis (2008); and Unequal Thailand: Causes, Consequences, Reform (2015). She worked for a time at the ILO and has been a visiting professor at Kyoto University, Tokyo University, University of Washington, Griffiths University Brisbane, and Johns Hopkins SAIS. She received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Monash University; was invited to deliver the W. F. Wertheim memorial lecture in Amsterdam; received book prizes from the American Library Association and Mainichi Shimbun; and was named a “Star of Asia” by Business Week.