Sonam Wangchuk (engineer)

Sonam Wangchuk
Wangchuk in 2017
Born (1966-09-01) 1 September 1966
Alchi, Jammu and Kashmir (now in Ladakh, India)
Education
  • B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering)
  • DSA (Earthen Architecture)
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Engineer, educator
OrganizationStudents' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh
Known forIce Stupa, SECMOL, Ladags Melong, Operation New Hope
SpouseGitanjali J Angmo
Parents
  • Sonam Wangyal (father)
  • Tsering Wangmo (mother)
AwardsGlobal Award for Sustainable Architecture (2017)
Fred M. Packard Award (2016)
Rolex Awards for Enterprise (2016)
Real Heroes Award (2008)
Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship (2002)
Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018)

Sonam Wangchuk (born 1 September 1966) is an Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist. He is the founding-director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), which was founded in 1988 by a group of students who had been in his own words, the 'victims' of an alien education system foisted on Ladakh. He is also known for designing the SECMOL campus that runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.

Wangchuk was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope in 1994, a collaboration of government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government school system. He invented the Ice Stupa technique that creates artificial glaciers, used for storing winter water in the form of a cone-shaped ice heap.