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CORVALLIS - Sulak Sivaraksa, a Nobel Prize nominee and prominent Buddhist social and environmental activist from Thailand, will give the annual Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture for World Peace at Oregon State University on Tuesday, April 22.

His talk, "Buddhist Education for World Peace and Human Security," begins at 7 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center's Austin Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

After receiving university and law degrees in England, Sivaraksa returned to Thailand in 1961, where he became a publisher, university lecturer and founding editor of the Social Science Review - Thailand's leading intellectual journal - until it was suppressed by the government.

Sivaraksa has founded numerous organizations that promote economic and educational reform, social and environmental justice, and human rights. He also has written hundreds of essays and books, including "Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society" and "Loyalty Demands Dissent."

In many of his writings, Sivaraksa takes on the issue of environmental destruction - in Thailand and globally. Among the organizations he founded is Sekhiyadhamma, or Students of the Dhamma, which is a network of Buddhist monks working in their communities to preserve local environments that are essential to village economies.

He has been a sharp critic of governmental and commercial exploitation of nature at local, national and international levels, and the consumerism behind that exploitation.

Sivaraksa has actively supported the Assembly of the Poor, a group that emerged in the 1990s as a non-violent, grassroots democratic force in Southeast Asia, and now includes nearly a half-million members in Thailand alone. One of the goals of Sivaraksa and the assembly has been to eliminate, or at least slow down government and private projects that dislocate villages or undermine traditional ways of life and the communities that support it.

His ideal, supporters say, is tied toward the rural Thai environment of relatively small, self-sustaining communities living in harmony with the natural environment. Sivaraksa has said he does not advocate a return to a pre-modern era - an unrealistic goal - but instead promotes alliances and networks among people from many walks of life including laborers, academics, farmers, activists and business leaders to build a more democratic, inclusive and compassionate society.

The OSU lectureship honors Linus Pauling, an OSU graduate and two-time Nobel Prize laureate, and his wife, Ava Helen Pauling, a noted peace activist. It is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts.