Speaker: Dr. S. Paramananthan, Director, Param Agricultural Soil Surveys (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Time: 4 – 5 pm (before the GSM AGM at 5 pm onwards)
Date: 29 April 2016
Venue: Hotel Hilton, Petaling Jaya

The talk is organised under the aegis of the GSM-IGM Flagship on Disaster Risk Reduction, which is funded by the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund and in conjunction of the 50th Annual General Meeting of the Geological Society of Malaysia.

Dr. S. Paramananthan is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences and is recognised by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international agencies as an expert in tropical soil and peat management. He has led international teams in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Cambodia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon and Timur Leste to conduct soil survey, feasibility surveys, land evaluation and soil classification. He has also served in the International Committees on Classification of Low Activity Clays (ICOMLAC) and Oxisols (ICOMOX).  In this context he has produced two educational posters and three maps showing distribution of specific soil types in Malaysia that have contributed to the global knowledge on tropical soils. Dr. Paramananthan has also contributed to the discourse on climate change particularly with regard to the emission of GHGs from peatland forests. He is an advocate of innovative multidisciplinary approaches using existing knowledge on tropical soils in conjunction with subsurface geology to find new solutions from old science to address floods and peat fires in tropical terrain. The talk will elaborate on this aspect and its potential for disaster risk reduction in Malaysia and the region.

The organisers invite all GSM and IGM members to attend the talk. There is no registration fees but participation is limited on a first-come-first served basis. The deadline for response to the GSM Secretariat [Ms. Anna Lee, ] is 25 April 2016.