Biography

Nhìn Tấn Thuận, also known as Thuan Sarzynski, is an environmental activist, researcher and free-lance journalist. He holds a masters degree in landscape ecology, for which he wrote a thesis on palm oil mapping in Indonesia. He is currently enrolled in a PhD program where he studies the effects of climate change on new coffee varieties. He has shared his research about the ‘coffee of tomorrow’ in a TedxTalk.

Thuan is a blogger and sci-comm enthusiast. He has published environmental stories, photo essays, and fictional stories on his Medium blog since 2017; in addition, he has contributed 15 times to Snipettemag, an Indian sci-comm magazine. Thuan wants to write about topics related to the human relationship with nature, this includes climate change, food security, agriculture, and forest conservation.

Thuan has recently joined a research-media fellowship organized by SUMERNET, a network of researchers investigating social and environmental changes in the Mekong region. As a fellow, he will write about the role of wetlands in ensuring water security in the Mekong delta. Thuan is well-versed in analysing spatial and quantitative data and is looking for ways to change data into impactful stories able to move the public and enact policy changes.

He believes that good stories can change the future of humankind and encourage people to reconsider their relationship to their natural environment. Thuan is a humanist who loves the past and recent technological progress but worries that the disconnect of humans with nature may cause their end. When he is not measuring coffee trees or writing environmental stories, Thuan likes bicycling, sleeping, and eating.