Professor Piriya Krairiksh is a prolific author, artist, and scholar of South East Asian art history. Upon completing a thesis entitled The Chula Pathon Cedi: Architecture and Sculpture of Dvaravati, he obtained his doctorate from Harvard University in 1975. He served as a curator of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra (1976-77), before returning to Thailand, where he taught first at Silpakorn University (1977-78), and subsequently at Thammasat University (1978-2002). In 1999, Piriya was named the TRF Senior Research Scholar by the, then, Thailand Research Fund (TRF). He was President of The Siam Society (1989-92), and Director of Thai Khadi Research Institute at Thammasat University (2003-2006). He has published widely, and well beyond his official retirement. In 2012, he founded the Piriya Krairiksh Foundation to promote and encourage the study of and new thinking on the art history of Thailand and the neighbouring countries.