News

Congratulations to Akchousanh Rasphone, a rising WildCRU star that has now risen to be Conservation Science Director, WCS Lao PDR.

We first met Akchou when she was GIS expert, blossoming into a Spatial Landscape Ecologist. In 2012 she joined our Post-graduate Diploma at the Recanati-Kaplan Centre in International Wildlife Conservation Practice. She graduated with a Distinction, and launched into a doctorate within our Clouded Leopard Programme. In 2019 she became the first Laotian woman to receive a doctorate from Oxford University. Now we bath with pride in her reflected glory: Dr Rasphone has been appointed at WCS Conservation Science Director in Lao.

In her new role Dr Rasphone will be responsible for leading scientific and research aspects of WCS Lao PDR’s biodiversity/species conservation and Protected Areas (PA) management activities throughout the country. During her thesis work, Akchou tragically documented the demise of leopards and tigers in Nam Et – Phou Louey National Park, remarkable work that was published in Global Ecology and Conservation and illustrated in WildCRU’s Clouded Leopard Programme Video Series. You can read more of Akchou’s papers via her WildCRU profile page.

Akchou is one of almost a hundred alumni of WildCRU’s Diploma course, affectionately known globally as the WildCRU Panthers, who have gone on to make major contributions to conservation.