'Prof KNS, most distinguished physiologist'

24th Memorial Oration on November 18:

Admirers of Kirthi Nissanka Seneviratne can look forward to a comprehensive account of his life and work by attending this year's Prof. K.N. Seneviratne Memorial Oration Scheduled to be delivered at the Sri Lanka Medical Association Auditorium at Wijerama Mawatha on November 18 at 7.00 p.m.

Almost a quarter of a century after his much-lamented premature death at the age of 56, Prof K.N. Seneviratne remains the most distinguished physiologist in the history of Sri Lanka. KNS was a polymath - a doctor, university don, physiologist, researcher, scientist scholar, educationist, administrator (national and international) and volunteer army captain.

Sadly he was also a tobacco addict. Yes, it has now become one of my occupational hazards; ever since I was appointed chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol in 2007, all my waking thoughts lead finally to tobacco which killed even the best friend I ever had, Kirthi Nissanka Seneviratne, or Bull.

Like many others he began to use tobacco on the sly as a schoolboy, succumbing to the aggressive marketing strategies of the tobacco merchants of death. Now that the truth about tobacco is beyond doubt.

Prof Vajira Weerasinghe, Prof of Physiology and Consultant Neurophysiologist, Teaching Hospital Peradeniya will deliver the oration. Prof. Weerasinghe graduated with honors in Dentistry from the Faculty of Medicine University of Peradeniya in 1984. He joined the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya as a lecturer in 1986. He then did a Master's degree on "Skin temperature gradients" under the supervision of distinguished physiologist Prof. Valentine Basnayake. He was a Commonwealth Scholar in 1991 and Commonwealth fellow in 2002.

He obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton, UK in Clinical Neurophysiology in 1994 and did his post-doctoral work at the King's College London on Advanced Clinical Neurophysiological Techniques. He has established the most comprehensive Clinical Neurophysiological Centre in Sri Lanka at Peradeniya which serves patients and conducts research on neurophysiology. He delivered the Bibile Memorial Oration organized by the Kandy Society of Medicine in 2007. He has been the President of the Physiological Society of Sri Lanka in 2004 and in 2008 and the President of the Kandy Society of Medicine in 2009. Currently he is the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya.

Next year 2012 will mark the Silver Jubilee of the Physiological Society of Sri Lanka as well as the Silver Jubilee of the professor K.N. Seneviratne Memorial Oration.

- Professor Carlo Fonseka