THE K.N. SENEVIRATNE ORATION 2023

By Prof. Susirith Mendis

The 36th K.N. Seneviratne Oration will be held at the Facuty fo Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura on Saturday, November 18, 2023. It will be held in conjunction with the Annual Sessions of the Physiological Society of Sri Lanka (PSSL). The inauguration will be at 8.00 a.m. and the Oration begins at 8.50 a.m.

Much has been written on the life and work of Prof. Keerthi Nissanka Seneviratne by his academic colleagues, generations of his admiring students and those who knew him as a sincere friend. He is no stranger to the medical academic community in Sri Lanka.

Professor Seneviratne was born in Elpitiya, Galle on November 22, 1929 as the second son of Dr. Robert and Mrs Laura Seneviratne. Prof. Seneviratne came from a privileged family. His father, Robert Seneviratne was a doctor trained in Edinburgh, Scotland, where subsequently, Prof. Seneviratne obtained his research doctorate.

He had his primary and secondary education at Royal College, Colombo. He obtained his MBBS degree with honours in 1954 from the University of Ceylon, Colombo, gaining a distinction in Medicine and winning the Gold Medal for Operative Surgery.

After completing his clinical training as a young doctor, he joined the Department of Physiology of the Colombo Medical School on secondment as a Demonstrator in 1957. Due to his interest in research, he went to the UK and obtained his Ph.D from the University of Edinburgh. Having rejoined the Department of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, he was promoted to the post of Professor of Physiology at the age of 39 in 1969 and was in the post until 1981.

I do not think it is necessary to reiterate to this audience, the highlights of Prof. Seneviratne’s unique and distinguish career that was cut short by the massive heart-attack he suffered in August 1986. His career highlights include, in particular, his exemplary research and teaching career at the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo; his pioneering, but short stint as the founder Director of the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine that has subsequently transformed into the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine; and his unfinished tasks at the South-East Asia Regional Office of the WHO in New Delhi. His ground-breaking efforts to bring postgraduate medicine into Sri Lanka amidst much opposition from the medical establishment has been grossly under-estimated and gone almost unrecognised. I consider it a ‘revolution’ of sorts that transformed postgraduate medicine in Sri Lanka.

The Institute of Postgraduate Medicine (IPGM) which later became the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) was established by Prof. K.N. Seneviratne in 1974 and he was the Founder Director until he was appointed as a Regional Advisor to the World Health Organisation in 1981. The tragedy of our times is that we do not recognise great pioneers, but do so of lesser men who tread the paths that have been cleared for them.

The photograph of Prof. K.N. Seneviratne does not hang on the walls of the PGIM as the founder of that institution (though by another name). My attempts to redress that injustice to Prof. Seneviratne while I was the Chairman of the Board of Management of PGIM fell on deaf ears. Perhaps, my attempts were too feeble and ineffective.

He earned the immense respect of his peers, as he was undoubtedly the ‘primum inter pares’ among them. He earned the respect of lesser men, not by his position or authority, but I believe, by the abundance of his innate humility, humour and humanism.

Prof. Seneviratne was different in many ways. He (and Prof. Leicester Jayawardene) came to work in white bush-shirts and often in sandals. Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story writer and wit, once said that “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society,” Prof. Seneviratne and Prof. Leicester Jayawardene showed me early, contrary to Mark Twains dictum, that ‘clothes do not make the man’.

Of those who knew him intimately, Prof. Carlo Fonseka was perhaps, one of the closest. Prof. Fonseka’s description of him in “The Island” on 21 November 1987, to my mind, fits best and exemplifies the multi-faceted nature of his personality. I quote, “This large-hearted giant of a man was spontaneously self-effacing, consciously non-competitive, disarmingly non-aggressive and pathologically publicity shy.” Giants of men are a rare breed in any country. It is, perhaps, more so in ours. A giant in stature, character and personality is that much rarer. Prof. Seneviratne was one such very rare gentle giant of a man.

I have not found an explanation as to why Prof. Seneviratne chose physiology for his specialization and future professional career and not a clinical one, in any of the commemorative tributes and articles written of him. They all seem to assume that it was an obvious and natural choice with him.

I wish to believe Prof. Seneviratne’s strong research profile was fired by an urge to ‘search and find’ new information that had eluded medical researchers until then. Perhaps, He was also attracted to the discipline of physiology by the intrinsic scientific logic of its basic principles.

And therefore, what better way to comemmorate him than an Oration in his name by The Physiological Society of Sri Lanka?

This years Orator will be Professor Niranga M. Devanarayana, the Chair Professor of the Department of Physiology, University of Kelaniya. She graduated with MBBS from the University of Ruhuna and obtained her Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Kelaniya, and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Her main research interests include brain-gut axis, gastrointestinal motility disorders and functional gastrointestinal disorders. She has over 75 publications, including sevej book chapters and over 65 scientific papers in highly reputed indexed international journals. Her publications have received over 3000 citations, and her H index is 32.

She has presented more than 120 abstracts on a variety of topics on gastroenterology, both nationally and internationally. Previously she has delivered two orations. The Prof. C.C. de Silva Oration at the Annual Academic Sessions of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians 2010 on ‘Recurrent abdominal pain syndrome in children: A Sri Lankan perspective’; and the Dr. S. N. B. Talwatte Memorial Oration at the Annual Academic Sessions 2020, Sri Lanka College of Radiologists on ‘Non-invasive assessment of gastric motility using ultrasound’.

She has won many national and international awards for her contribution to research on gastrointestinal motility, including the prestigious award for the Junior Investigator in Pediatrics from the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD), USA in 2013; KN Seneviratne Award for Physiology 2009; Hiran Thilakaratne Award for Medicine 2007-2009; and 10 presidential awards for research in Sri Lanka from 2008 to 2018.

She has served as the Director of the Research Centre, and chairperson of the Research Management Committee, Faculty of Medicine, and Chairperson of the Board of Study in Medical Sciences, Faculty of Graduate Studies, at the University of Kelaniya. She was a member of several editorial boards, including the World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics and the World Journal of Hepatology. She was also the President of the Physiological Society of Sri Lanka from 1999 to 2021 and secretary of PSSL in 2010.

In this year’s KN Seneviratne oration, the orator, Professor Niranga Devanarayana will talk on ‘Gut-brain communication: a mysterious hidden dialogue’.

(The writer is Senior Professor of Physiology, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University & Emeritus Professor, University of Ruhuna.)