21 January 2023:  At Meeting room, 1st floor, Royal Library Building, Srapathum Palace, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn graciously granted a royal audience to Prof. Dr. Pairash Thajchayapong, Member of the Executive Board and Secretary General of the Information Technology Foundation under the Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (PSIT), members of PSIT executive committee, and the project management team for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, United States, along with administrators, researchers, and officials. from relevant agencies, to report progress and plans for future cooperation between Thailand and the IceCube research group.

     The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, or IceCube for short, is located at the Amandsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica (Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station).  The construction was completed in 2010.  The project was led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with collaboration from many other leading institutions.  IceCube is a large measuring instrument made from a Digital Optical Module (DOM) strung through a large number of wires buried beneath the ice at the depth of nearly 3 thousand meters from the surface at the South Pole. The knowledge gained from building an observation tower in extreme conditions and from the study of particles measured by detectors in the observatory will bring hugh amounts of knowledge that will benefit mankind.

     Thailand has a collaboration with IceCube Project in the summer student program.  The activities in Thailand is led by the consortium “Thai-Antarctic Neutrino Observatory” (TANO) under the initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

     In 2022, the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented scholarships to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to grant to students to participate in the IceCube Summer Student Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, 2 scholarships per year, to provide opportunity to Thai students participate in training and workshop on IceCube Software and to learn more in-depth about the IceCube Neutrino Observatory’s research. The university will support expenses of approximately 7,500 USD per year for accommodation in the university dormitory and meals while participating in the project activities.

     Cooperation with Ice Cube will be beneficial to Thailand in terms of expanding knowledge regarding research in high-energy particle physics from space and human resource development, integrating education with cutting-edge research at the international level and unlimited advances in engineering and advanced technology.