Page 80 - A Life Well-Lived Is a Beautiful Memory

While Thammasat University was Bhanupong’s professional home, the AEP was his
intellectual haven. He always looked forward to AEP meetings and their invigorating discussions
on economic issues of the day. As a regular attendee since the first AEP conference in April 2001,

at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge Massachusetts, (Harvard University was one
of the main sponsors), until his last AEP meeting in Seoul in 2022, Bhanupong had forged deep
friendships with regular AEP participants, especially Wing Thye Woo, Shigeyuki (Yuki) Abe,
Maria Socorro (Corina) Gochoco-Bautista, Prema-Chandra Athukorala (Chandra), and Suresh

Narayanan. For Bhanupong, the AEP meetings were not only occasions for cerebral nourishment
with thought-provoking discourse on economics, but also a time to catch up and enjoy the company
of his friends who had enriched his life immensely.

Friendship... Is essential to intellectuals.

You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree,

by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk

Mary McCarthy- How I Grew

80 A Life Well-Lived Is a Beautiful Memory