Academy President Professor Andrew Holmes has told a meeting of Sri Lanka’s leading scientists that science academies around the world play a fundamental role in promoting science that contributes to the national development in their own countries, while also enhancing global science and technology.
Attending the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in March, Professor Holmes said that the purpose of science is to make the world a better place and improve lives, whether through applied research that solves immediate problems, or basic research that advances human knowledge and understanding. It is researchers and innovators—those with the ideas, the knowledge and the drive to solve problems and develop new products and services—who create new businesses and jobs, and who refresh and renew existing industries.
Professor Holmes also delivered a statement on behalf of Foreign Secretary Professor Cheryl Praeger, who chairs the Special Committee for Women in Science and Engineering of the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia, on the launch of the national Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World in Sri Lanka.
Professor Holmes’s visit provided an opportunity to strengthen important links between the two academies.
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