Vice-Chancellor’s message – An Asteroid Named to Honour University of Colombo
Dear Members of Staff, Students, and Alumni of the UoC,
I take pleasure and pride in sharing with you some heartwarming news – of how a distinguished alumnus of the Faculty of Science UoC and currently working in the USA, Dr. Nalin Samarasinha, has named an asteroid discovered by him and his team in the name of our beloved university! This indeed is a rare privilege, and the news undoubtedly gladdens and uplifts our spirits and enables us to gather further momentum in our quest for higher learning with a purpose. Despite experiencing unprecedented challenges over the past months, we have functioned as an effective seat of higher learning that has prioritized a connected view of research and scholarship with a multidisciplinary focus towards problem solving for the greater good of society.
This story of our university “joining the cosmos” has brought home two fundamental facts, viz. what an amazingly humble, professional, capable and committed group forms our UoC community when reaching such astounding heights, and the wonderful tribute paid to his alma mater by our reputed alumnus. Most importantly, our future generations can be greatly inspired by such gratifying stories of value-added education that paves the way for even more discoveries by such true sons and daughters of Lanka.
Permit me to thank the Dean and staff of the Faculty of Science and the respected alumni for continually engaging with the central administration to maintain the good name of our university and to be the benchmark for science education in Sri Lanka. We concurrently mourn the loss of a much loved and respected senior staff member, Senior Professor Ranil Dasanayake, who was an inspiration to many a student, colleague and associate of our university. We shall miss him dearly and look forward to further work in his chosen field to honour him perpetually.
I wish you the very best of everything in the coming weeks and months.
Yours truly,
Chandrika Wijeyaratne
Vice Chancellor
