ICTA Chairman appointed as Chancellor of Peradeniya University

Senior Presidential Advisor and ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe will assume duties as Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya this week.

“It’s a great honour for the higher education system in the country,” said academics and education policymakers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa made this appointment recently. Professor Epasinghe has a proven and illustrious track record in every field he served to develop the country, including education and ICT.

The appointment, in addition to the above-mentioned twin positions, indicates the calibre of the professor as a sine qua non in providing guidance in this country’s education and development.



The new mantle comes to the Professor when he has successfully steered ICTA as the apex body for implementing the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ development initiative during the last five years.

“The plaudit on ICTA and concomitantly on its head, the chairman, by the legislature reflects the laurels it has received both locally and internationally. Indeed the eulogy touches upon ICTA’s achievements like world awards and the speed with which Sri Lanka is moving towards becoming the dynamic knowledge hub of the world. Simultaneously, it recognises taking the computer to the village, a fond desire of The President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which the Professor has tried to fulfil with a passion through ICTA. The greater ease with which people of Sri Lanka, especially the rural poor, are able to lead their lives, is a tribute to the Professor and concomitantly to the President,” ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura said.

As the professor takes on the mantle, reminiscences are bound to emanate from memory lane. No doubt, the period from the day when the Professor joined the ‘University of Ceylon’ Engineering Faculty as freshman of 1954 will be full of valuable memories.

Having won an Exhibition at the university Scholarship Examination, he won the First in Engineering Scholarship awarded to the best Engineering student in 1955 and opted to switch over to the Faculty of Science to read for a Special Degree in Mathematics lasting three further years. However, he completed the course and all examinations in two years and passed the Final Examination in 1957 obtaining a First Class at the Special Science Degree (Mathematics).

He proceeded to the then Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, in 1961 for Post-Graduate studies. He was the first Sri Lankan student to join the Department of Theoretical Physics. At this time it was headed by Prof. Abdus Salam F.R.S., who was subsequently, awarded the Nobel Prize for Theoretical Physics.

In 1962, he completed the D.I.C. Examination and shared the first place in order of merit with one other student, and was registered to read for the Ph.D. Degree of the University of London as a student of Imperial College. After spending one year back in the University of Ceylon, he returned to Imperial College in 1963 and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1965 having written his thesis entitled “On the Formulation of Anti-Linear Quantised Fields”. He was also awarded the D.I.C. by Imperial College in 1965.

On his return to Sri Lanka in 1965, he was confirmed and promoted as a lecturer in Mathematics. He held this position until 1967 when he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics of the then Vidyodaya University of Ceylon. At the Vidyodaya University he also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1977/78. Also he served as the acting Head of Vidyodaya on several occasions. In 1978 he returned to the University of Colombo, the successor to the earlier University of Ceylon. A part of the University of Ceylon was in Peradeniya at the time he joined the academic staff in 1957.

In 1967 itself, he set up the first ever Post-Graduate Diploma programme on a self-paying basis in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) with the introduction of the one year Post-Graduate Diploma Course in Statistics. In 1968 he introduced for the first time in this country, Statistics as a discipline up to the first Degree level in a Faculty of Science.

He also developed and delivered a compulsory Mathematics programme with a heavy bias towards Statistics for the Bio-Science students up to the first Degree level. In1973/74, he proceeded to the Florida State University as a visiting Professor in Statistics on a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellowship. During this period he was also a Visiting Scientist on the invitation of Prof. Salam at the then International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste.

On his return in 1978 to the University of Colombo he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Mathematics, which also had a Statistical Unit, attached to it. During this time his expertise was sought by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. The institute appointed him as a visiting Professor to design and deliver a Post-Graduate Course in “Quantitative Techniques in Decision Making”.

In 1987/88, he introduced Mathematical modelling into the University system in Sri Lanka when he served the Open University of Sri Lanka as a U.N.D.P. consultant while on sabbatical leave. During this period, he also authored two books one on “Classical Mechanics” for the third year students. The other was on “Mathematical Modelling- Miscellaneous Models” for the first year students of the Open University.

On his return after sabbatical leave, he was instrumental in introducing several courses in Mathematical Modelling at the University of Colombo. He also pioneered the introduction of Actuarial Mathematics to Sri Lankan Graduates. He was able to get the Department recognised as a centre for examinations of the Society of Actuaries of USA in Illinois. He also promoted the young staff in the department to gain exposure to several areas of Mathematical Modelling in foreign Universities. In 1985, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka, and also to its Council as the Honorary Treasurer.

He was the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1983 and served as the acting Vice-Chancellor on several occasions. He served again as the Dean in 1994 and 1995. Before he began his term of office, he introduced the Faculty Calendar of Dates covering the period 10.05.93 to 27.10.97.

At this time, there was a backlog of student intakes created by the closure of all Universities for over two years in 1988, 1989 and 1990. By this time the backlog would have got cleared with the 1997/98 intake coming on 27.10.97. This was the only Calendar of Dates of this type in any Faculty in any University in Sri Lanka.

This also provided the students with information on the duration of Academic terms and vacations covering a period of four years ahead. In addition it also provided information about study leave periods, examination periods as well as the examination time tables for the same period.

His services were made available in an honorary capacity to a large number of ad- hoc committees of the University as well to the Faculty Board of the Faculty; The Senate of the University and also its Council too had his services.

His services were obtained by the Government of Sri Lanka, while he was working for the University, in several capacities; the most noteworthy of this was once in 1969-70. That was when he was appointed by Minister for Scientific Research and Housing as one of twelve to a committee. The responsibility of this committee was to examine the proposal for the establishment of Physics-Mathematics Institute or Institute of Technology studies.

Then in late 1994 he was appointed by the President of Sri-Lanka as Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. In late 1997 he was appointed as the Chairman of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency for a third term ending in October 2002.

His contribution was not confined to academic activities alone in the University but his colleagues elected him unanimously as the President of the University Teachers’ Association on several occasions.  His entire working life has thus been spent working for the university system as well as the Government of Sri Lanka to develop the country.