Putting Sri Lanka on the map :

Two bronze medals in International Biology Olympiad

The fact that Sri Lanka nurtured some of the best minds in the world is no secret considering the number of scientists we bestowed on the scientific community. From the 20th International Biology Olympiad, held July 18 in Tsukuba, Japan, comes another success story. Sri Lanka was able to bag two bronze medals.

Although this has nothing to do with luck and much to do with brains, as the phrase goes, Sameera Erandaka Ariyaratne of Gampaha Bandaranayake Vidyalaya and Udari Samarasiri of Visakha College were the lucky winners in the competitions for pre-university schoolchildren, that was represented by 221 students of 56 nations. And it was not a coincidence that all four had won gold medals in the local Biology Olympiad - which include Sameera Gamlath of Nalanda College and Maheshi Wijayabandara - have been selected to enter the Colombo Medical Faculty.

The students were the best of the best among the 1,800 students of A/L classes who took part in the National Biology Olympiad (SLBO), held annually and conducted by Sri Lanka Institute of Biology in collaboration with eight universities and the Ministry of Education.The first International Olympiad in Mathematics was held in Eastern Europe in 1959. The other disciplines, Physics (1967), Chemistry (1968) and Informatics in (1989) quickly followed. The first Biology Olympiad was held in 1990, an annual event for secondary school students.

And the questions are above the standard of secondary school education in the world.

"The standard of the questions of International Biology Olympiad is very high.

The theoretical and practical questions are 5 hours long each which demands persistence and determination, as well as discipline", says Dr. Hiran Amarasekera, Head of Department of Forest and Environment Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and National Coordinator of Sri Lanka Biology Olympiad, who was also in the International Olympiad Panel of judges with Prof H. G. Nandadasa from University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Prof. M. J. S. Wijeyaratne from University of Kelaniya. Mobitel Lanka sponsored the travel arrangement for the Sri Lankan team.Consequently the students were trained by professors of Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura and Kelaniya Universities, who volunteered their time and labour, on which would have otherwise cost a small fortune.

"The victory is quite a significant achievement since this is the first time that Sri Lanka took part in the International Biology Olympiad", says Dr. Amarasekera.