7 Thandava Ray St,
San Thome
Madras 600 004, India
Tel: 91 44 2491 1898
Tel: 91 821 2402558 [h]
E-mail: surrender@eth.net
dlsuren@yahoo.co.in
Lawrence is a Chemical Engineer and Environmental Economist by profession. He is the Founder Director of ARENA and served as the Director of ARENA Hong Kong Centre, from it’s founding in July 1980 till September 1988. After that he returned to India where he taught Environmental Economics, was involved in curriculum development and research. In 1997 he was a scholar-in-residence at the Dag Hammarksjold Foundation, Uppsala. Between 1994 and 2002, he has served the United Nations – ESCAP, Bangkok in different capacities and worked in Indo-China countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. He is also a Visiting Faculty in several institutions in India and abroad, notably, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, the Asian College of Journalism, Madras, Mysore University and Queen’s University, Canada.
From February 2004 to Feb 28th, 2006, he has been Regional Adviser of the UNESCO-Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) in Seoul, Korea. During his stay in Seoul, S.Korea in the winter of 2005, he taught an elective course on Comparative Asian Development at Sung Kong Hoe University. He is now developing the course as an Asian Development Studies Course to be soon taught in several other universities in S.Korea. He is Co-Director of the Project on Knowledge Systems and Plant Genetic Resources, of the Centre for Plants, People and Ecosystems (CPPE), Madras, Trustee and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Research on Environment, Development, Innovations, Technology and Trade, (CREDITTe), Bangalore. He is a Senior Advisor to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden and a member of the International Advisory Panel of Experts for UNESCO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok with reference to the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) 2005-2014,
Lawrence and his wife, Pushpa live outside Mysore on an organic horticultural farm, growing sapotas and coconuts. As a scholar-activist he is engaged in public policy issues and is involved with smaller locally based groups on issues of local governance, eco-regeneration, alternative trade, plant bio-diversity, sustainable agriculture and related activities. Lawrence is well published and has written a number of papers and articles on issues relating to the economy, education, science, technology and development in India. He is a regular contributor to one of India’s leading and widely circulated Feature Fortnightly, ‘The Frontline’, on topics such as the Asian Environment, multilateral institutions and international development.