Archives

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The President's Research Awards-2001 ceremony was held at President's House on Friday under the patronage of eminent scientist Sir Arthur C.Clarke.

This is the third successive year (2001) of the ceremony in which awards were offered to 173 outstanding Sri Lankan scientists who have conducted research in the country's scientific institutions based on a coverage of the annual editions of the Science Citation Index (SCI).

SCI is a database of the world's scientific periodicals judged to be the topmost by its publisher, the Institute of Scientific Information in Philadelphia with respect to quality and impact on science. Only publications figuring in the SCI of 2001 with a Sri Lankan institutional address (solely or partly) will be considered for an award. Trivial and non-research publications, as judged by the panel of judges appointed by the President will be eliminated.

The SCI has analysed 3714 periodicals containing a world total of about 1,200,000 titles of articles in 2001.

The following compilation covers all the "hard" science titles (excluding the Social Sciences) with a Sri Lankan address against at least one author as given in the SCI.

Addressing the ceremony, President's Secretary W.J.S. Karunaratne said today is an important day for Sri Lankan scientists who have engaged in their research in scientific institutions. He said it is too early to conclude as to the effectiveness the scheme to increase national scientific production or to stem the brain drain.

However, statistics of the annual research publications in Sri Lanka from 1991 to 2002 have shown the beginning of an upward trend in the research sector.

These awards will motivate our research workers and encourage the scientists to effectively contribute to the socio-economic development of Sri Lanka, he said.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke congratulated all the award winners.y

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager