President congratulates gold medalist Rakitha Malewana

Rakitha Dilshan Malewana a student of Nalanda College, Colombo who won a gold medal for the treatment of HIV/AIDS at the International Science Research Olympiad called on President Maithripala Sirisena. The President expressed willingness to offer state sponsorship for him at any time. Rakitha said he wished to enter the Kotalawala Defence Academy for higher studies.

Two Sri Lankan students won gold medals at the International Science Research Olympiad held with the participation of representatives from 41 countries.

For the first time a gold medal has been won for the South Asian region for the drug produced by Nalanda College student Rakitha Dilshan Malewana using Nano technology for the treatment of AIDS. Another student of the Nalanda College Rananjaya Subash has also won a gold medal for a mechanism presented by him for removal of heavy metals in the water through an algae presented in the water itself.

This is the first time a single country has won two gold medals at a competition like this. Representatives from 41 countries have presented 183 projects for this competition covering the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Environment and Technology. At this Olympiad 4 gold medals have been offered and two of them have been received by Sri Lanka and the other two have been received by Indonesia and Belarus.

(Sources: news.lk)