Powsiri Klinkhachorn

Powsiri “Klink” Klinkhachorn was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, but now considers Morgantown home. A professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Klinkhachorn earned his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, ranked first, with First Class Honors from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Thonburi, in 1977. He went on to earn his master’s and doctorate in the discipline from WVU in 1979 and 1983, respectively. Klinkhachorn started his career as an assistant professor at Louisiana State University in 1983 and came home to join his alma mater in 1988.

Klinkhachorn has been the recipient of numerous awards. He was named the West Virginia Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation/CASE; the IEEE Major Education Innovation Award from the Educational Activities Board; the WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching; the Statler College’s Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Researcher awards; a finalist in the INTEL 8086 Application Contest; and the Thailand National Science Fair Innovation Award.

Since 2011, Klinkhachorn has lead several WVU robotics teams to top finishes in numerous national and international competitions, including the NASA Robotics Mining Competition, NASA/NIA RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops Competition and the Pacific International Space Exploration Systems Robotic Space Mining Competition. He also served as an advisor to the winning team in the Sample Return Robot Challenge, part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges.

Klinkhachorn has been principal and/or co-principal investigator on more than 100 grants and contracts, totaling more than $30 million. He has published more than 250 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu and is a Fellow of IEEE.