The ‘diffident’ scientist who made waves in his quiet manner
The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on Boxing Day 2004 measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale generated what was soon called the Indian Ocean tsunami, claiming 250,000 lives and displacing over 1.5 million people. Of the people who survive in a possible future scenario of this sort, few if any will know the debt they owe to Professor Samantha Hettiarachchi. Working out of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka he spearheaded the installation of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning & Mitigation System under the auspices of UNESCO, as a long time member of the Steering Group and eventually its Vice-Chairman and Acting Chairman. He drew on his entire range of skills and qualities in this venture to achieve consensus among both bureaucrats and subject specialists from 26 Indian Ocean rim states. Under his leadership UNESCO has produced two definitive guidelines on Tsunami Risk Assessment and Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis. As was stated in his citation when elected a Fellow of Sri Lanka’s National Academy of Sciences in 2012, “He is probably one of the few Sri Lankan scientists with such global reach and influence.”
Unfortunately, this scientist-engineer who spent such a large slice of his life to prevent deaths from disasters himself passed from life to death on April 24 at the relatively young age of 62, after a courageous battle against cancer. Neither he nor his wife ever hid the fact of his cancer from others. However, many of his friends and associates did not know he was suffering from the disease until his death – that was because he always adopted a positive outlook to life, made the most of what life gave him, and indeed was a source of counsel for others who suffered from the illness – even complete strangers whom he met during hospital visits for radiation therapy. Many are the times when my own wife has pointed to him as an example for me to be more positive about life.
Paradoxically, the man who achieved so much in his comparatively short life was one who had his bottle of fruit juice sent to his primary school from home during the interval (he was the youngest of five children and spoilt rotten); and his wife carrying his briefcase for months after a hernia operation for fear of reversing the procedure. Even after his doctorate from Imperial College London (1987), for many years he would attend conferences and make study visits only to the U.K. because he did not want to expose himself to environments he was not comfortable with. One would not think that such a sheltered and diffident person could influence his world of coastal engineering so pervasively. The fact that he did, speaks volumes for his technical mastery, uncompromising pursuit of excellence and charismatic panache.
His success was also clearly due to the unqualified support he received from his loved ones – something he always acknowledged. His wife Premini chose deliberately to support Samantha’s career unstintingly without seeking to develop allencompassing ambitions of her own as a fellow academic at Moratuwa University with her own PhD from Imperial. They did not have any children but both of them doted on their nieces and nephews. Samantha was a Buddhist and Premini a Catholic but they respected each other’s religions. In any case their religiosity was expressed more in their everyday ethics than in excessive religious ritual.
Samantha was a man of many parts. At S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia (STCML) he was co-editor of the college magazine, head prefect of the school in 1975 and won the Victoria Gold Medal for the best all-round student. As a university academic he delivered for many years the welcome address in Sinhala to parents of the freshman batch. As an orator he could keep an audience spellbound, if not in fits of laughter; many are the times he delivered the felicitation address when engineering faculty members were retiring. As a teacher he invariably painted the big picture while tackling the intricacies of differential equations. He also took time to talk about life, love and laughter and was held in the highest regard by his students, some of whom flew down from afar just for the day of his funeral. As a mentor he always encouraged the high performers and nurtured the stragglers, fully aware of the often trying circumstances from which state university students come.
As a raconteur he could draw widely from the many books he devoured (Bill Bryson being a favourite author); and also his encyclopaedic knowledge and remarkable memory of both Sri Lankan and world politics. I suspect that books and politics were pastimes acquired from his father David, a proprietorial tea planter and pioneer of the cooperative movement – a man I always held in the highest esteem. Incidentally, his mother Manel was an Abeywickrema, and the Mt Lavinia street on which Samantha lived virtually his entire life is named after her father.
Samantha was Head of Civil Engineering at quite a young age from 1997 to 2000. Some of the administrative systems he set in place are still being followed. He also went out of his way to help those with specific difficulties, whether colleagues or students. Although encouraged by many to climb the usual academic leadership ladder to becoming Dean and Vice Chancellor, he was single-minded in his devotion to his specialization. He always wanted to “parley as an equal” with anyone associated with his field the world over, and that he was able to do in no uncertain terms. His technical advice was sought not only in Sri Lanka but also in Oman and Indonesia.
All this did not preclude a passion for fountain pens, his most dominant avocation. Not only did he amass an enviable collection (and that cleverly, with minimal financial outlay) but he also became a world expert in this area too, writing to international pen magazines and being consulted by dealers and even manufacturers.
As his research moved from the more technical hydrodynamics to the broader areas of coastal management and disaster resilience, he solicited and encouraged the engagement of a range of other specialists. This made him uniquely positioned to lead Environmental Impact Assessment studies of various sorts including controversial ones - both the Mattala Airport and Port City ones drew the ire of environmentalists. But I can say unequivocally that he was highly sensitive to the environment and never kowtowed to politicians. Neither could he be bought. On many occasions he declined legitimate financial compensations of various sorts on higher ethical norms.
My own career coincided with Samantha’s at STCML from 1967; and then at Moratuwa University’s Civil Engineering Department from 1975 as both students and teachers, including overlapping periods of doctoral study at Imperial College London from 1983 to 1986. When Samantha and Premini got married in London I was privileged to be Samantha’s best man, attesting witness and photographer all in one. I feel that their wedding away from familiar surroundings contributed to the very close relationship they shared in their marriage. I shall miss him; and will be at a loss to find someone with whom to share anecdotes, the nuances of which only both of us appreciated.