Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma & Brothers
Photos /Courtesy : L. K. Hettiarachchi , Friends of SAC Galle Photos 1950/1960, Aloysian Centenary Souvenir
The Ponnamperuma Brothers
 |
| Lakshman, Felix, Cyril |
The well
known Ponnamperuma Brothers , whose parents, Andreas Ponnamperma &
Alexandra Grace Siriwardena resided in
Galle , first attended St. Aloysius College, Galle. (SAC}.
Lakshman George Ponnamperuma , the eldest of the 3 Ponnamperuma brothers, later Ph.D from London University & 1st Chairman, CISIR, now Industrial Technology Institute SL, & Technical Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, was at SAC from 1924-1933, according to a detailed article he contributed to the Aloysian Centenary Souvenir in 1995.
Tribute to him published in the Sunday Times of 6 Oct. 1996 CISIR Building Renamed
The
Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISIR) building which
houses the information centre will be officially named as the "Lakshman G.
Ponnamperuma Block." This is in memory of Dr. Lakshman George Ponnamperuma
who had the unique distinction of being both a past director and chairman of
the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr. Ponnamperuma
conbributed in no small measure to the progress and expansion of the Institute,
during his term as director from 1965-1970, having being instrumental in
obtaining a renewed grant from the government at a time when its finances were
at a very low ebb.In recognition of his services to the Institute and to honour
this internationally reputed scientist, the CISIR conferred on him an
"Outstanding Recognition Award" last year.Besides his leadership role
at the CISIR, Dr. Ponnamperuma pioneered the Cement Industry in Sri Lanka,
serving the then Cement Corporation first as chief chemist and Technologist,
and later as managing director and chairman.Dr. Ponnamperuma was the president
of the Chemical Society of Ceylon (succeeded by Institute of Chemistry, Ceylon)
in 1961 and a Member of the National Science Council from 1968 to 1970
Felix Nelson Ponnamperuma, later Ph.D. from Cornell
University, the world-renowned Principal Soil Chemist, IRRI, Phillipines &
developer of the miracle rice, IR 8. Rev. Fr. Peter Gomez, who studied at SAC
from 1928 to 1934 in his contribution to the Aloysian Centenary Souvenir
records that he was admitted to Std. 2B (1928) & that Felix Nelson was in
Std 2A.
Felix Nelson Ponnamperuma – Neglected Science
refers to him as follows:
Felix Nelson Ponnamperuma, Sri Lankan pedologist (Galle, Ceylon
08 July 1920 – Kandy, Sri Lanka 11 December 1992). Regarded as a world-renowned
authority on chemistry of submerged soils. One of the first to apply
thermodynamics to flooded soil systems. Explained quantitatively the kinetics
of pH, redox potential, electrical conductivity and important ions in flooded
soils
The Ponnamperuma genealogy records that there was a fourth brother, Michael Vernon, who was also a Scientist associated with the Ozone Layer Research Team & that he died in the USA in 1997. There is no indication that he studied at SAC..
All 4 brothers have been Scientists.
That Cyril Ponnamperuma's association with SAC did not end with his departure to St. Joseph's College is revealed in this short note by Rev. Fr. Aloysius Peiris S.J., Theologian & Director of Tulana , which is reproduced below, Courtesy : https://thuppahis.com/2024/09/30/fr-aloysius-pieris-s-j-on-cyril-ponnamperuma/
Cyril
Ponnamperuma was an ex-Jesuit. As a former Jesuit scholastic, he studied at
Sacred Heart College in Shambaganur (in the State of Madras or Tamilnadu). The
Sacred Heart College was an international Jesuit Philosophate where he secured
his Licentiate in Philosophy (L. Ph), as did many of us Lankan Jesuits.
Licentiate in Philosophy is a universally recognized ecclesiastical degree (not a BSc) and had nothing
to do with the Madras University. That degree corresponds to an M. Ph in a
secular university today.
Then he came for his regency to Galle and taught
General Science at SAC …… just a couple of classes (which I attended as an
Aloysian residing in the Kalegana Minor Seminary).
This was the time he continued [with his Jesuit
superiors] to question his Jesuit vocation, and finally left the Society of
Jesus ….. but temporarily worked in the Galle diocese (still in cassock) as an
assistant to Fr Vincent Cali, s.j. the rector of the minor seminary in Kalegana
(Galle) where we seminarians came to know him personally and to admire
his extraordinary humaneness hiding his brilliant intellect.
Then he left the robes for good……………..and
began an academic journey that ended up in his becoming a world-famous
scientist.
After that I met him only once, after a university
function here in our country at which he was a special guest and at which I was
officially awarded my doctorate. That explains how I had a chance of exchanging
a few words with him……for the last time.
Aloy Pieris, s.j.
(Note: I was admitted to SAC in 1945. On reading the note by Fr. Aloysius reproduced above, I realised that I had seen Fr. Cyril Ponnamperuma at the college premises when I was in Form 1.)
1945
Ponnamperuma Cyrillus 32 birth 13 oct. 1923 Entry 23 sep. 1941
(1941 to 1944-information not available}
1945 & 1946 - SAC
MAGISTRI ET PRAEFECTI MORUM
Ponnamperuma Cyrillus, par. grad. acad. ; Chianese Iosephus, Sub.-praef.
; Rajapakse Felix, Sub.·pra.ef.
1947 & 1948
Sacred Hearl College - Shembaganur ·Madura Dt. ·India)
Scholastics - Paulus Casperz, Cyrillus Ponnamperuma, Ludovicus Cramer, Petrus
Gomez, Thomas Kuriacose (all names familiar to Aloysians)
1949 - SAC
Cyrillus Ponnamperuma, Sub-praef .
1950
No entry in the Jesuit Archives, but St.
Xavier's Seminary at Kalegana was under Fr. V. Caly S.J. . Fr. Aloysius Peiris
was a Seminarian there as Aloysians of that period are very well aware.According to Fr. Peiris, Cyril Ponnamperuma was Assistant to Fr. Caly at the Seminary & gave up robes probably in that year.
Important Milestones
Born to Andreas Ponnamperuma & Alexandra Grace Siriwardena
Admitted to St. Aloysius College , Galle, where his brothers Lakshman George & Felix Nelson were already studying.
1945 & 1946 - SAC
Teacher
1947 & 1948 - India
Scholastic at Sacred Heart College - Shembaganur ·Madura Dt. ·India)
1949 - SAC
Sub-Prefect
Assistant to the Director of the Seminary
1956
Received B.Sc in Chemistry degree from Birkbeck University, London. (At the age of 36)
Received PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. (At the age of 39) Awarded a National Academy of Sciences Resident Associateship to initiate research in exobiology with Richard Young in a newly open facility at NASA-Ames Research Center, namely the Life Sciences Laboratory.
Conducted research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California
Became a US citizen.
Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Evolution at the University of Maryland.
Professor Cyril Ponnamperuma | National Institute of Fundamental Studies (NIFS), Sri Lanka
Term of office from 1984 to 1991
The second Director of the IFS, Professor Cyril Ponnamperuma is widely
known all over the world as a leading authority on the chemical origins of
life. His stance on the origins of life debate earned him a very significant
place in the scientific community. He believed life was created from atoms,
molecules interacting through chemical reactions.
“Life is only a special and very complicated form of the motion of
matter” -Prof Cyril Ponnamperuma-
Prof Ponnamperuma's radical ideas are not yet completely agreed
upon universally. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in Chemistry for
cooking up the building blocks of life (five ingredients of RNA and DNA) in his
lab at Ames Research Center as well as the energy transporting molecule ATP.
These were very important contributions to the field of Abiogenesis(the
original evolution of life from inorganic/inanimate substances). Prof
Ponnamperuma had "no doubt at all," he said, that life could someday
be created in the laboratory.
Cyril Andrew Ponnamperuma was born in Galle (in 1923), Sri Lanka. He
attended St Aloysius College in Galle and later joined St Joseph’s College in
Colombo. His parents were educators and encouraged him to study
philosophy after finishing his school education. He obtained his Bachelor of
Arts in Philosophy in 1948 from the University of Madras, India. This is where
he decided to study chemistry, setting a scientific approach to life in
general. He received his B.Sc in Chemistry in 1959 from Birkbeck University,
London, UK. It was in London that he started to grow curious about the origins
of life. Prof Ponnamperuma, moved to the US to study for his doctorate under
the guidance of Nobel laureate, Melvin Calvin at the University of California,
Berkeley. He received a PhD in Chemistry in 1962.
For over a decade, Prof Ponnamperuma was the editor in chief of the
scientific journal Origins of Life. It was a place for astronomers, geologists,
chemists and biologists to publish their contributions on this subject. During
the course of his career he published over 400 articles on chemical evolution
and origins of life. His book, “Origins of Life” was published in many
languages.
"Scientists are human, and they are biased as any other group. But
they do have one great advantage in that science is a self-correcting
process.”-Prof
Ponnamperuma-
In the 1980s, Prof Ponnamperuma took an interest in promoting science in
Sri Lanka. He became the scientific Advisor to President J.R.Jayawardene, who
appointed him as the Director of IFS in 1984. He was instrumental in
setting up the permanent home for the Institute at Hanthana after taking over a
hotel. Prof Ponnamperuma was the first in Sri Lanka to organise a School
Science Programme, a tradition which is still being continued at the NIFS. In
the late 1980s, when the Japanese government granted 5.2 million US dollars
worth equipment to the IFS, they asked whether they could also give a personal
present to Prof Ponnamperuma. He said “Yes, I like presents, but can you please
give us a Zen Garden for the whole institute?” The Japanese
contractors brought sand and pebbles from Japan and built an exquisite Zen
Garden, which used to be one of Prof Ponnamperuma's favourite locations within
the Institute. Even during the height of the Marxist JVP insurgency in 1988-89,
when most public institutions were forced to close, the IFS quietly continued
its work, under the guidance of Prof.Ponnamperuma.
In recognition of his service to Sri Lanka, Prof Ponnamperuma was
conferred, "the Honour of Vidya Jyothy" at the 1990 National
Day investiture ceremony by H.E. the President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He firmly believed Sri
Lanka’s path towards development was paved through science. At the age of
71(in 1994), he suffered a cardiac arrest in his office at the University of
Maryland, USA. We are honoured to have this celebrated 20th Century
Philosopher, Chemist and Exobiologist as a part of the history of our
Institute.
"No other scientist of Sri Lankan origin was internationally known
and respected as he was"
-Arthur C. Clarke (on Professor Cyril
Ponnamperuma) –
Extract from In Memoriam
Courtesy: R Navarro-González. Link to full article is given below :
"In 1978, he was named a Distinguished Professor of the University of Maryland and by 1980, ISSOL awarded him the first A.I. Oparin Gold Medal for the ‘best sustained program’ on the origin of life. In 1993, the Russian Academy of Creative Arts awarded him the first Harol Urey Prize for his outstanding contributions to the study of the origin of life.
Ponnamperuma was associated to many universities and research institutions in the United States and elsewhere, such as Stanford University, the International Sum mer Institute on Quantum Chemistry (France), the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), the Sorbonne (France), U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, the Interdisciplinary Summer Institute on Exobiology (Iceland), the Academia Sinica (People’s Republic of China), the UNESCO Program for the Development of Basic Research in Sri Lanka, and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Italy). Since 1984,
Ponnamperuma was appointed Science and Technology Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka. While maintaining his academic position at Maryland and an active research program at the LCE, he established the Institute of Funda mental Studies at Kandy, Sri Lanka and acted as its director until 1991. He also acted as director of the Arthur C. Clark Centre for Modern Technologies (1985–1987), located in Sri Lanka.
In 1985 he was elected a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences and was appointed the Chairman of the Global Frontiers of Science Committee. He served as Vice President of the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations and President of the Third World Foundation of North America, an organization that includes 10 Nobel laureates in the Board of Governors. He was also appointed Director General of the Network of 20 international centers for Sustainable Development to be established in the developing world by the Third World Academy of Sciences.
In 1991, the University of Maryland awarded him the first Distinguished International Science Award for a scholarly career combined with extraordinary services to the international community and assumed the first Directorship of the World Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Maryland.
A few months prior to his death he was named member of the Pontifical Academy of Science in Rome, where he used to lecture on the origins of life.
Ponnamperuma was a member of the American Chemical Society, a Fellow of the Chemical Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in London, and a foreign fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, among many other scientific organizations.
He was a Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) of the University of Sri Lanka (1978), the University of Puget Sound (1982), the University of Peradeniya (1984), the University of Sri Jayawardenepura (1985).
In 1990, The President of Sri Lanka awarded him the ‘Vidya Jothi’ (Luminary of Science) medal for his services to science to Sri Lanka; and in 1991, the government of France conferred on him the title of ‘Chevalier de Lettres et des Artes’ for promoting international understanding. Cyril Ponnamperuma was a warm and affectionate being. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing him
For further reading :
Sachi Sri Kantha
https://thuppahis.com/2024/09/26/cyril-ponnamperuma-an-incisive-scientific-researcher-in-world-class/
Sachith Mendis
https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/20/an-appreciation-of-scientist-cyril-ponnamperuma-a-timely-reminder-from-roar/
Nalaka Goonewardena
https://groundviews.org/2009/12/20/dr-cyril-ponnamperuma-1923-1994-a-passionate-champion-of-public-science/
J. A. K. Jayakody on Cyril Ponnamperuma: distinguished scientist of Lanka
https://www.flickr.com/photos/menik/2234666362
Maria Pacheco
Rafael Navarro Gonzalez ́
Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico D.F. ́
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006532105251
http://www.worldgenweb.org/lkawgw/gen3717.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/23/science/life-s-origin-a-scientist-s-search-for-the-very-beginning.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/24/obituaries/cyril-ponnamperuma-scholar-of-life-s-origins-is-dead-at-71.html
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