Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Oration 2015 on 21 Sept.

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Oration 2015 will be held on Monday, 21 September at 4 p.m. at the Senate Room, University of Peradeniya. The Oration will be delivered by Prof. Tilak Abeysinghe, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore on the topic, ‘Stress and Cancer: A Link through the Chinese Cultural Revolution’.

Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera was Professor of Economics and Head of the Dept of Economics and Political Science of the then University of Ceylon. He succeeded Prof. Das Gupta to become the second occupant of the Chair (and the first Sri Lankan) in the Department in 1961. He also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Peradeniya (1963-1969) and later on as Secretary, Ministry of Planning (1970-1977) under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. He was a much respected academic and public servant. A large number of his students have made outstanding contributions to both academic and public life in Sri Lanka and overseas.

Prof. Tilak Abeysinghe has served in the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore (NUS) since 1988. His research interests lie across a range of theoretical and empirical applied econometrics topics which include the Singapore economy, housing affordability, social epidemiology and quantitative health research. He has published in highly reputed international journals in the field. At NUS, he also serves as the Director of the Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics (SCAPE) and as a Senior Fellow at the Asia Competitiveness Institute.

Prof. Abeysinghe holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Peradeniya, M.Sc. in Statistics from the University of Colombo, M.A. in Economics from Thammasat University, Thailand and a Ph.D. in Economics/Econometrics from the University of Manitoba, Canada.

The Oration will examine the empirical link between stress and cancer incidence in the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This will also serve as an example of how social scientists contribute to the discourse on public health issues.

The Oration is organised jointly by the Dept of Economics and Statistics, University of Peradeniya and the Prof. H.A. de S. Gunasekera Memorial Trust Fund. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to [email protected] (Maheshi) or 081-2392622 (Eranga).