Which American author says Pad Thai was created in the 1930s in Thailand?

The American author who says Pad Thai was created in the 1930s in Thailand is Mark Padoongpatt.

Padoongpatt presents Pad Thai as a modern dish rather than an ancient recipe preserved unchanged for centuries. His account places its creation in Thailand during a period when the government was actively defining a unified national identity after the 1932 revolution.

The story is more complicated than the familiar claim that Thailand simply invented noodles. Rice noodles and stir-frying had already entered Thailand through Chinese migration and regional trade. What was new was the particular dish and its presentation as distinctly Thai. That is why answers such as Jeffrey Alford, Andy Ricker, and David Thompson are not substitutes: they are associated with Thai food writing, but they are not the American author identified in this account.

Padoongpatt is a scholar of Thai American history and foodways. His interpretation also helps explain why Pad Thai became internationally recognizable: it was both a popular food and a carefully useful symbol of modern Thailand.