Professor W D Ratnasooriya

It is an honour and privilege for me to present to you, Professor Wanigasekera Daya Ratnasooriya for felicitation by the Institute of Biology, in recognition of his invaluable service to the field of Biology in Sri Lanka. Professor Ratnasooriya is no stranger to the Institute of Biology and to this audience. He was one of the founder secretaries of the Institute of Biology and served on its council in 1988/89.

Professor Ratnasooriya had his primary and secondary education at Royal College, Colombo. He gained admission to the University of Ceylon, Sri Lanka, in 1968 and graduated with a Second Class Honours in Zoology (Upper Division), in 1972. He then joined the Department of Zoology as an Assistant Lecturer in 1973 and proceeded to the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK in 1975, from where he obtained his PhD in 1978. On his return to Sri Lanka, he was promoted to the post of Lecturer in 1979. He has the singular honour of becoming the youngest Professor of Zoology in Sri Lanka in 1986, at the age of thirty-eight, having earned a merit promotion directly from Lecturer, a rare achievement in those days. He was appointed to the Chair in Zoology two years later. He then earned another merit promotion to Senior Professor in Zoology in 1991. All this bears ample testimony to his meteoric rise in his chosen profession as a university academic and scientist.

I have known Professor Ratnasooriya over half my life, first as a senior student when I joined the university and then as a member of the academic staff of the Department of Zoology. Although I have not had the good fortune of being taught by him, I am told by several of his students, some of whom are now members of the department, that he is an excellent teacher who has the gift of being able to convey complex physiology in a simple manner that could be easily understood by students.

Research has always been of great interest and importance to Professor Ratnasooriya and that is his forte. Since his return to the Department of Zoology after obtaining his PhD, he has become one of the foremost researchers in Sri Lanka. His research interests are wide and varied, ranging from mammalian reproductive physiology, biology of the Sri Lankan elephant, ecology & biology of bats in Sri Lanka to pharmacological & toxicological studies on Sri Lankan plants and bioactivity of Sri Lankan tea. It is remarkable that almost all of this research work has been done in Sri Lanka, with limited facilities, having being funded mainly by local funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation. I believe that there is no other zoologist in Sri Lanka who has published his research work as much as Professor Ratnasooriya. He has to his credit 253 research publications in peer reviewed prestigious local and international journals, many of which are indexed in international data bases such as Science Citation Index and Current Contents. He has the rare distinction of being the Sri Lankan Scientist having the highest individual cumulative index for research publications for the period 1991-2001, cited in the Science Citation Index, according to the report of the National Research Council of Sri Lanka. .In addition he has 139 research communications presented at national and international conferences.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements as a researcher and scientist he has received many awards. These include the Presidential Bonus Research Award for International Scientific Publications cited in World Science Citation Index in 1999, 2000, 2002 , 2006 and 2007 , the CVCD Excellence Award for the most outstanding researcher in Biological Sciences in 2006, the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, General Research Committee Award for outstanding contribution to scientific research in Sri Lanka in 2005, the Research Achievement Award from the University Grants Commission for Excellence in research based on publications in indexed journals in 2004, merit awards three times from the National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka, in 1988,1991 and 1993) and the Annual Research Award for the best research scientist in the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo over the past six consecutive years , from 2001 - 2006. He was elected a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2005 and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka and a Fellow and Chartered Biologist, Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka. Professor Ratnasooriya has now reached the pinnacle of his distinguished and outstanding career as a scientist having earned the Doctor of Science degree from the University of Peradeniya this year. In spite of all these achievements, he still remains the quiet, soft spoken and unassuming person that he always was.

Professor Ratnasooriya has also made numerous and valuable contributions, both at university and national level, in the field of Biology. He served as Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo from 1987 to 2002 and served in various committees within and outside the university. He has several research students working under his supervision and so far, 5 M.Sc., 8 M.Phil. and 6 PhD degrees have been awarded to them. He has served as External Examiner and Visiting Lecturer to several other universities in Sri Lanka and functioned as member of the editorial boards and as referee of several scientific journals both nationally & internationally.

His contribution to the GCE Advanced Level in Zoology in the past and now in Biology is invaluable. He has authored several text books in Zoology and served as member of syllabus and curriculum revision committees in Zoology for the G.C.E Advanced Level. He has been a member of the Setting Board of Zoology and is at present a member of the setting Board of Biology. He functioned as the Co-controlling Chief Examiner in Zoology from 1988 to 1993, Controlling Chief Examiner in Zoology from 1994-2000 and is presently one of the three Co-controlling Chief Examiners of Biology.

In recognition of his long, dedicated and scholarly service to the advancement of biology and research in Sri Lanka, the Institute of Biology is honoured to felicitate Professor W.D. Ratnasooriya, its founder secretary and Senior Professor of Zoology at the University of Colombo.

Presented by Mrs. Dilrukshi de Silva, Head, Department of Zoology, University of Colombo. at Annual Sessions of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka on 2007 September