Porntip Rojanasunan

As a child she had interests in forensics because both of her parents worked in the field. She was sent to an American boarding school, and after finishing boarding school she wanted to be an interior designer. However her father wanted her to become a doctor. Her forensic career started with an internship by studying forensic medicine, and performing autopsies. Pornthip is very proud of her work and that it "ensures her a place in heaven." == Government service ==

Graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, Mahidol University, in 1979, Pornthip became a medical officer in the Ministry of Public Health. She held several positions in the Ministry, all dealing with pathology. In 2001, Pornthip was transferred to the Ministry of Justice to hold concurrently the positions of Director of the Medical Division at the Central Youth Detention Centre and Ministerial Spokesman. She next served as deputy director (9th Class Administrative Officer) of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, since 2003, and was promoted to Director (10th Class Administrative Officer) by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in 2008. Pornthip's four-year term as CIFS Director expired in April 2012, and her term was extended for one more year. However, Yingluck Shinawatra's Council of Ministers removed her from the office in May 2013. Pornthip was appointed Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice. Her removal was effective immediately and without any advance notice, while Pornthip was carrying out her official functions in the People's Republic of China. Pornthip felt her removal was motivated by politics, since some politicians might have been upset with her work. A number of experts agreed with her, citing Pornthip's conflicts with the Royal Thai Police, which had caused her and her team to be barred from working in central Thailand and being sent to work in the south instead. == Career ==

Pornthip first attracted widespread media attention when she investigated the murder of Jenjira Ploy-angunsri in 1998. She rapidly became a celebrity pathologist and published a memoir, Seub Jaak Sop ("Investigating Corpses"). After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Pornthip supervised the effort to identify the tsunami victims in the Phang Nga region. In October 2009, she concluded that Malaysian Democratic Action Party employee Teoh Beng Hock, who had been detained by the Malaysian federal Government's Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had an 80% probability of having been being murdered.{{cite web In April 2010, she was appointed to the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation or CRES (previously known as the Centre for the Administration of Public Order), a military organization charged with maintaining peace and order within Bangkok and the surrounding provinces during the massive anti-government protests in 2010. Dozens of protestors were killed and thousands injured in the CRES-ordered crackdown. == Jenjira Ploy-angunsri murder investigation==

After returning from her internship in Bangkok she come back to mystery involving a medical student who was missing for two weeks. The person police suspected to have had committed the crime was another medical student. After being interrogated by police the medical student confessed to the murder and claimed that he had done the crime in a hotel room. After that the Thai police closed the investigation but Rojanasunand had doubts about the story the medical student gave. She then re-interrogated the medical student and he changed his story from the one that he gave to the investigators. Then after her interrogation the government thought that she had made them look bad because of their decision to close the murder case after the first interrogation. == GT200 "bomb detectors" ==

Pornthip was a vocal and sustained supporter of the GT200, a "remote substance detector" that Pornthip and the UK manufacturer claimed could detect from a distance various substances including explosives and dead bodies. Several nations have found the devices to be fraudulent. 2008 clashes between police and the Peoples Alliance for Democracy resulted in one death and several serious injuries, but much confusion as to whether the injuries were caused by police tear gas grenades or improvised explosive devices carried by the protesters. Pornthip used a GT200 device to conclude that the protester injuries were not caused by explosives and concluded that tear gas grenades caused the injuries, leading to the removal from office of the national police chief. Queen Sirikit later attended the funeral of the fatality. Large protests against the Democrat-led government were held in Bangkok in 2009, prompting a violent crackdown. Rumours of widespread killings were denied by the government, which pointed to the lack of bodies. When shipping containers rumoured to be filled with skeletons were found sunken off several coastal areas, Pornthip was assigned to help with the forensics. She suggested that rather than opening up the containers, GT200 bomb detectors using dead body "sensor cards" should be used. When news of the fraudulent nature of the GT200 devices became public in 2010, Pornthip defended the use of the devices, even if they were proven ineffective. She noted, "I do not feel embarrassed if the bomb detector is proven ineffective. Personally, I have never handled the device myself. But my people have used it and it is accurate every time. Long long time ago, people believed that the Earth is flat and anyone who said otherwise faced execution. Things which are not visible does not necessarily mean they do not exist." == Media personality ==

A media personality and the most famous pathologist in Thailand, Pornthip often appears on television sporting her unorthodox style: punk-rock hair dyed purplish red, eccentric clothing, and glittery eye makeup, and platform shoes. Her wax statue has been displayed at Madame Tussauds in Bangkok since 2009, along with the statues of Kukrit Pramoj and Silpa Bhirasri. In 2023, a video of Rojanasunan visiting Iceland sparked a controversy because it showed her being kicked out of a Thai restaurant for being a Senator. == Royal decorations ==

Porntip has received the following royal decorations in the Honours System of Thailand: • 2003 - Member of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao (MC) • 2013 - Knight Grand Cordon of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant (MPCh) • 2008 - Knight Grand Cordon of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand (MVM) • 2017 - Companion of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn (ChBh) • 2010 - The Border Service Medal (ChD) • 2005 - Chakrabarti Mala Medal (RChB) Foreign honours • : • 2005 - Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (KNO) == Published work ==