Message of the chief guest of the 2003 Annual Sessions of IOB

Rohan Pethiyagoda 27 September 2003

Adviser/ Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources

23rd ANNUAL SESSIONS -2003, INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY

SRI LANKA

MESSAGE OF THE CHIEF GUEST

I am deeply honoured by the invitation extended to me by the Council of the Institute of Biology to be present at its 2003 Annual Sessions. As an engineer by training, it is perhaps unusual that in my own case, the study of biology has grown from a boyhood hobby to a full-time obsession. Despite my status as an ‘outsider’ among professional biologists, I have been greatly touched by the readiness with which they have welcomed me into their ranks.

In the two decades since the Institute was established, biology has developed from being largely an academic ‘pure’ science into an industrial mainstay: the biological sciences today represent greater market capitalization than the computer sciences. The prestigious Nature group of journals for example, devotes four of its eight periodicals purely to the ‘new biology’— Cell Biology, Structural Biology, Genetics and Biotechnology. The Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology has, during the past several decades, been awarded increasingly not to medical researchers but to cell and molecular biologists.

The challenge before professional biologists in Sri Lanka today is developing institutional capacity in the front-line biological sciences while reinforcing the foundations of traditional biology. It is time not just to change the national perception that all biologists are either ‘botanists’ or ‘zoologists’, but also to demonstrate that inasmuch as the past half-century belonged to the electronics industry, the next must belong to the genomics and proteomics industry. These are enormous challenges that demand visionary thinking and courageous initiatives, to both of which challenges I am sure the Institute and its members are equal.

At the same time, biologists face increasing challenges in fields of immediate and urgent relevance to Sri Lanka. Conservation biology is taught and researched, but hardly practised; likewise, opportunities in traditional fields such as ecology, systematics, behavioural science and bioinformatics need to be developed and exploited fully in the national interest by the community of biologists.

I extend to the Council and members of the Institute my sincere good wishes on their nineteenth year of service to the nation and to biology. Be assured that the future belongs to you.

Rohan Pethiyagoda 27 September 2003

Adviser/ Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources
"Sampathpaya", Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.