Monday, February 22, 2016

Meet The Sri Lankan Scientist Who Helped Detect Gravitational Waves

Srianee (Bunter) Fernando Dias has sent in this link to an interesting article. Nipuni Palliyaguru happens to be a graduate of Srianee's alma mater Ladies College. She justifiably says that we should all be proud of this young scientist as we all have connections to her country of birth. What Nipuni and the team detected is ground breaking, and blog readers would find it very interesting.

Srianee in turn had received this bit of information from her friend Savitri (wife of Prof. V. Kumar who was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Peradeniya and a daughter of the late Prof. BLT de Silva who was Professor of Botany at the University of Ceylon, Colombo). I remember Kumar and Savitri  as students in the Science Faculty in 1961 when I myself was there doing the 6-months course for the 1st MB.

http://roar.lk/identities/meet-sri-lankan-scientist-helped-detect-gravitational-waves/

6 comments:

  1. This is great news Srianee- Many thanks for sharing it with us,
    and Lucky, thanks for posting it.
    Apart from her achievement which all SriLankans can be proud of, the advise she gives is very sound and needs to be kept in mind by all women.
    Srianee Please also convey my regards and thanks to Savi if you'll be in touch with her again before you leave -have a great time-cheers

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  2. Fascinating! I read about the confirmation of gravitational waves by the LIGO group in the New Scientist magazine (nit that I really understood it!) but the news about this young Sri Lankan girl is so great. Ladies college girls and old girls must be over the moon.

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  3. Many thanks, Sriyani, for this welcome and timely article regarding a unique event increased our knowledge of the Universe we live in. The world stood still and took notice as the announcement of gravitational wave detection was made a few days ago. To know that a Sri Lankan lady scientist was part of the LIGO team makes us really proud. This article makes things much clearer. It's much appreciated!
    Zita

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  4. I'm glad all of you enjoyed this article and are keeping up with other advances in the world of science. I am really happy to see that more and more young women are fearlessly getting into the "Hard Sciences." I have fond memories of my physics classes with Mr. George Ondaatje (as I'm sure Rohini does). Rohini, I will convey your regards to Savi when I see her. I will be hanging around here a little bit longer.

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  5. Bunter, I read this in one of our local papers, and was extremely proud that she was an old girl of Ladies' College. I too remember our physics classes with George Ondaatje. Is he still alive? (a bit of a rude question...)Sriani B

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  6. Srianee, Yes I remember George Ondaatje's physics classes too- They were superb-he made it all very simple and easy.
    Like Sriani, I am also interested to know what's become of him.It would be nice even to say thankyou after all these years-
    Did you know he was supposed to have been an excellent Ballroom dancer?

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