Your accomplishments and legacy will live on
Despite losing his father at the tender age of two, Dr. Suppiah Senthe Shanmuganathan grew up striving for the best. His hard work, perseverance and commitment to reach great heights opened many doors, including pursuing his higher education and his career advancement. By the end of his career, Dr. Senthe had published 55 papers on his research both in Sri Lanka and globally.
Dr. Senthe completed his education in Jaffna a year ahead of his age, yet could not enter Colombo Medical College as he did not pass the Tamil language. He then decided to major in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics. There were only seven spots available for this programme, and he won one of them to enter university with a full scholarship. His mark in Math was 110%, as he attempted two additional questions in the final exam. He topped his graduating class of 1950 and was a recipient of the Khan Memorial Prize.
Dr. Senthe joined the Medical Research Institute (MRI) in 1951, a prestigious position which led to overseas scholarships to pursue his PhD.
This was the beginning of many scholarships for higher education, experiences, knowledge, presentations and travels around the world. At the University of Sheffield, UK, his research was funded by the Guinness Brewery to find the source of the bitter particle in beer. His presentation in 1956 at the British BioChemical Meeting in Dublin was his first to a non-Sri Lankan audience. A year later, he gave the same presentation at the University of Oxford, the first Sri Lankan to present there.
In 1958 he was offered a post-Doctoral fellowship at Rutgers University, New Jersey to work on yeast, returning to Sri Lanka with his PhD. In 1964, he was one of two Sri Lankans to receive the Fulbright Scholarship and was selected to join the International Science Conferences in China where he met Chairman Mao and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in India.
His MRI colleagues were of the opinion that his greatest contribution to Sri Lanka’s medical service and the public was also one of his best pieces of research. During the early years of Dr. Senthe’s career, physicians used parameters of Clinical Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry given in British textbooks as the norm in treating patients. Dr. Senthe determined that these values were not applicable for Sri Lankans and others in trop- ical Asia. He coordinated a project carrying out all baseline testing using healthy subjects and hospital patients who were Sri Lankans. The result was the establishment of a normal value and a significant range for every test. These are the same values which are being used by physicians in Sri Lanka today.
This work was published in several of his papers, and medical magazines. Sri Lanka is richer from this thoughtful contribution. It could be said that among many of his achievements this was one of the greatest contributions Dr.Senthe made to the country while at MRI.
Back in Sri Lanka and working at MRI, Dr. Senthe was also a part-time lecturer at the Colombo Medical College and the Institute of Chemistry. This is when he realized the need for a diploma programme for lab assistants who wanted to pursue a career in Chemistry. By his initiative, the Diploma in Laboratory Technology in Chemistry (DLTC) programme was started at the College of Chemical Sciences. Dr. Senthe was appointed the director of this programme and subsequently became the coordinator. Dr. Senthe was then appointed as the President of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon 1972 – 1973. He received an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon in 2015. The ICHEMC bestowed upon him the Yeoman Service Award in February 2018 in appreciation of his unwavering philanthropical contribution.
After retiring from the MRI in 1986, he moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1987 to be with his three children and four grandchildren. He worked at Nucro-Technics Pharmaceutical Research & Development where his experience and education was recognized as equal. It is not everyone who is able to work in their field in a foreign country at the age of 65. His expertise was fur- ther recognized by the Canadian Government, which sent him to China three times to solve scientific problems.
Dr. Senthe always wanted to give back to the Institute of Chemistry where he served for so long. He strongly believed education is the passport to a better life and a brighter future. He created a bursary at the Institute of Chemistry in Sri Lanka, and helped many students to pursue their education.
Active until the last, he passed away at his home on August 20. His joyous and accomplished life was celebrated on August 22, in Toronto, Canada with his family and friends.
Appa/Thaththi brought joy and fulfilment to many and his legacy will live on forever.
We loved him dearly in life and we love him dearly now.