Professor H G Nandadasa

It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity of presenting to this distinguished membership of the Institute of Biology, Professor H G Nandadasa, one of the founder members of this Institute whom the Institute will be felicitating to day in recognition of his invaluable services rendered to the field of biology.

Professor Nandadasa graduated from the University of Ceylon, Colombo with a Special Degree in Botany with a Second Class Upper Division. After serving for few years in the Department of Botany in University of Peradeniya, he joined University of Sri Jayewardenepura, then the Vidyodaya University in 1967. He obtained his PhD from the University of Leicester, UK in 1971. He was appointed Professor of Botany and the Head Department of Botany in 1982. As one of the Founder Professors of the Science Faculty in Vidyodaya University, he was instrumental in introducing many courses of applied origin to the B.Sc. Degree Programme. These included Fisheries Science, Food Science and Forestry. All these courses have flourished up to postgraduate level. Some have become full-fledged Departments.

He contributed immensely to the development of postgraduate degrees in the University. He was the Chairman of the Board of Studies in Life Science of the Faculty of Graduate Studies from its inception in 1996 to 2001. He had supervised many research degrees both at Masters and PhD levels. He had authored many research publications in the fields of genetics and microbiology.

I had the good fortune of meeting Professor Nandadasa when I was a Botany student in the University of Kelaniya. Later, I got to know him more closely when I joined the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as an Assistant Lecturer in Forestry in which he was the Course Coordinator of the Forestry Programme. I will not be in the present highest academic position in Forestry if not for the confidence Professor Nandadasa and the selection panel placed on me in the largely male involved area of forestry. He believed in ability and it was never clouded by gender-related attitudes. We always considered him as someone whose thinking was always ahead of his contemporaries. I still remember him working with two most modern computers in his office when all the rest were still struggling with typewriters.

Professor Nandadasa had a special interest and enthusiasm in developing Forestry in the University. He was the first Course Coordinator of the Forestry Programme and was in office from 1983 to 1987. During this time he developed the facilities, human resources and teaching programmes with much interest and enthusiasm. I am proud to be here as one of the first students in the Masters Degree Programme in Forestry as well as the first Lecturer in Forestry in the University. Presently, the programme had developed into a fully-fledged department offering both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Forestry and Environmental Science.

He was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science in 1992. During his time, the course unit system of teaching and assessment was introduced to the Faculty. As the Dean his interests were not only confined to the Science Faculty. He greatly contributed to the establishment of the Faculty of Medical Science in the University also.

His contribution to the field of Biology outside the University spans from being a setting examiner of the GCE A/L Botany and Biology papers from 1970 to date. He was a member of the committee for the preparation and revision of Biology Syllabus from 1996 to date. He played a pioneering role using electronic media to help GCE A/L students to prepare for exams.

He was very active in professional societies in Biology. He was a founder fellow and had served the Council as a Member, Vice President and is a Life Member of the Institute of Biology. He was also very active in the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science as the President of Section D in 1983, Member of General Research Committee from 1981-83. He also served the National Science Foundation, then NARESA as a member of Biological Science and Biotechnology Committees. He was also a member of the Academic Council of the Institute of Fundamental Studies and member of the Advisory Committee of the Fauna and Flora Protection in the Department of Wildlife Conservation. He served as Visiting Fellow in many Universities outside Sri Lanka namely Gottingen University, Germany, University of Leicester, UK and BenGurion University, Israel. He was also a recipient of the most prestigious fellowship awarded by the United States Government, the Fulbright Hays Research Fellowship and conducted valuable research in the University of Yale in Connecticut State.

Professor Nandadasa’s academic carrier portrays a giant academic stature through this simple, soft spoken personality. The Institute of Biology felicitate you as a true biologist in the country at its 26^th Annual Sessions, and wishes you good health and fortune to continue your work for many more years to come.

Felicitation address by Prof Hemanthi Ranasinghe, Professor, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura on 29 September 2006 at the Annual Sessions of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka.