The 13th Annual Research Symposium of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, was held on November 22 and 23 on the theme of the “Multi-faceted Nature of Research in the 21st Century.” At a time when the universities are under siege as it were, from external and internal forces of ‘not performing,’ ‘not maintaining standards,’ [...]

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Prof. Malik Peiris: The humility of a Fellow of the Royal Society

By Manique Gunesekera
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The 13th Annual Research Symposium of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, was held on November 22 and 23 on the theme of the “Multi-faceted Nature of Research in the 21st Century.” At a time when the universities are under siege as it were, from external and internal forces of ‘not performing,’ ‘not maintaining standards,’ ‘lacking a research agenda,’ ‘wasting the taxpayer’s money,’ and the like, it was a breath of fresh air to welcome into our midst a person of the caliber of Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris, FRS.

Professor Malik Peiris is the Tam Wah-Ching Professor of Medical Science, Scientific Director of Hong Kong University’s Pasteur Research Centre, and Chair Professor of Virology, Hong Kong University. To us, members of the non-medical sorority, he is best known as the researcher who identified the source of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus when it was about to become the ‘black plague’ of the early 21st century. A source of pride to us is that Professor Malik is a homegrown academic: he is an alumnus of St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota, and the University of Peradeniya. In his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 13th Annual Research Symposium, 2012, he did not let us forget that he owed all success in academia, all accolades in the research world to his beginnings as a young researcher at the University of Peradeniya.

Prof. Sarath Amunugama, Vice Chancellor of the Kelaniya University (left) and Prof. Malik Peiris lighting the traditional oil lamp at the launch of the 13th Annual Research Symposium

Amongst his many titles and achievements is the honour of being a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). At the risk of being branded both postcolonial and neocolonial, this writer is giving the following extract from Wikipedia because it gives the essence of what it means to be a Fellow of this august society.
“The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence.

Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the “Royal Society of London.” The Society today, acts as a scientific advisor to the British government, receiving a parliamentary grant-in-aid. The Society acts as the UK’s Academy of Sciences, and funds research fellowships and scientific start-up companies. The Society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Society’s President, according to a set of Statutes and Standing Orders. The members of the Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the Society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows. There are currently 1,314 Fellows, allowed to use the post-nominal title FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society).”

While Sri Lanka counts many brilliant scientists as members of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute of Chemistry, and other organisations, Prof. Malik is the only Sri Lankan to be a member of the Royal Society. Therefore, it was a feather in our cap that he agreed to deliver the keynote address at the Annual Research Symposium, coming from Hong Kong, just for the day, to do this. The Vice Chancellor, University of Kelaniya, Prof. Sarath Amunugama, himself an alumnus of Peradeniya University, extended an invitation to Prof. Malik who declared in his opening remarks, that he had no hesitation in accepting this invitation because it came from a Sri Lankan university.

Professor Malik’s keynote address was on “Germs, Pandemics and a Life in Research.” The choice of topic itself is telling, and reflects the speaker’s awareness of his audience, and his audience analysis. Before the event, he checked up from the organisers whether the audience at the opening ceremony would be only graduate students. On being informed that it would be a discourse community of researchers from all Sri Lankan universities and graduate students who are both Sri Lankan and international, he geared his presentation to suit his audience. He began by informing us that this presentation was not designed for a specialist audience, although there were members of the Faculty of Medicine, Ragama Campus in our midst; he was making a non-specialist address on contemporary issues.

It was an excellent presentation delivered by an excellent presenter. As a lecturer who has taught presentation skills in the Business Schools of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and the University of Kelaniya MBA programme, this is unreserved praise by this writer for a presenter par excellence – as the Librarian of the university put it, “He is a great role model for our students.” He succeeded in making the presentation come alive by mixing scientific analysis with historical detail and personal narrative. He ‘peopled’ the slides with human beings, anecdotes, scientific data, graphs, and personalities involved in research.

Prof. Malik began his speech by telling us how the most unlikely paths lead one to research. In his case, he cited the example of a textbook used in the English class at St. Anthony’s, which inspired him to explore the world of research. The textbook was an English reader on the life of Louis Pasteur, and he found this biography to be a ‘boy’s adventure story’ as it were, and led him to explore the world of medicine. It is fitting that he is the current Scientific Director of the Pasteur Institute of the Hong Kong University; going from his schoolboy passion for the life of Louis Pasteur to such academic heights of scientific investigation.
The contents of “Germs, Pandemics and a Life in Research” began with germs and took us to the famous or infamous pandemics such as the Plague, Spanish Flu, Small Pox etc., and gradually got to his own life as a researcher, with ample examples of lessons learnt and experiences gained both in Sri Lanka and overseas.
From this brilliant opening address, the 13th Annual Symposium continued with parallel sessions on Medicine, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce and Management Studies. There were 165 paper presentations and 21 poster presentations [accepted Abstracts] on the multi-faceted nature of research in the 21st century. The high points of the Symposium were the launching of the first Journal of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Volume 1, 2012, and the ability of the University of Kelaniya to attract researchers from all the universities of Sri Lanka, making it a truly inter-university event.

The Journal of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Volume 1, 2012 is a refereed, peer reviewed journal, and reflects the research agenda and interests of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the apex body of postgraduate studies of the University of Kelaniya. The first issue is based on the presentations made at the 12th Annual Research Symposium and adhered to the guidelines of a refereed journal. It showcases on-going research from the carbon retention capacity of two mangrove species from the Negombo estuary, to Global Environmental Governance, to sustainability of remittances, to (de)-construction of gender identity in children’s literature, to the adhivaasi community and their safeguarding and erasing of identity, amongst others.

The drawbacks were the absence of presenters whose papers were accepted, and abstracts published in the conference booklet. This is a shameful happening in academia, reflected in the proceedings of international symposia, and the conference circuit, be it the SLAAS annual sessions, the conference of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka English Language Teachers’ Association (SLELTA) international conference and other fora; over 20% of academics whose papers have been accepted do not attend the conference and make the presentations. It is a scandal because these same academics use the conference booklet as evidence of presentations made, when it comes to applying for confirmation of posts and applications for professorships.

Whatever the drawbacks, the 13th Annual Research Symposium had a dramatic opening session mainly because of the contribution of Prof. Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris FRS. It was his humility which won the day, starting from his declaration that he would never refuse an invitation to a research forum from a Sri Lankan university, and his acknowledgement of his debt to the University of Peradeniya, where he cut his teeth amidst the drawbacks of political turmoil and student unrest. Additionally, his plea to our research community not to wait for massive grants and trendy equipment but to manage with what we have, and to switch research areas, not to remain in the groove of doctoral research for the rest of our lives were snippets of solid advice interspersed with his narrative of a life of research.

Above all, it was his humble debt of gratitude to his mentor, Prof. Chubby Arsakuleratne and his peers in Sri Lanka that won the heart of his audience. His PowerPoint presentation included visuals of his research teams as much as of his findings in his life of germs and pandemics. An example of his pithy comments and narrative was his statement that today, “Health for All” which includes animals and humans is the slogan of world bodies such as WHO and the United Nations, but he, along with his Sri Lankan colleagues learnt this many moons ago, when they discovered that the pigs released by the Mahaweli Authority, to diversify livestock were acting as the vector for malaria mosquitoes. He found the same link between animals and humans when investigating the causes for the SARS virus many years later, in the bazaars of Hong Kong.
In 2011, the 12th Annual Research Symposium of the University of Kelaniya had the privilege of hosting Justice C.G. Weeramantry as its Keynote Speaker, and this year, we welcomed Prof. Malik, another illustrious son of Sri Lanka as the Keynote Speaker. Both are examples of the understated, the humility and simplicity of the truly great – they have achieved much, are willing to share the secrets of their success, with simplicity, grace, warmth and Sri Lankan accents. They have led by example in that they have achieved greatness in the international sphere but acknowledge their humble beginnings in their homeland.

The 13th Annual Research Symposium began by heralding the Keynote Speaker’s arrival with the traditional drums played by the students of the Department of Fine Arts, and the conference volunteers were the students of the Department of English, who added “a splash of dash” as Professor Asoka de Zoysa said, with their smart black and white outfits. It is the fervent hope of the University of Kelaniya that the students will follow in the footsteps of the Keynote Speaker, Professor Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris FRS, in both his professional achievements and the humility of his discourse. After all, we do need a second Sri Lankan who can write FRS after her/his name.

The writer is Chair Professor of English, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Kelaniya




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