Sri Lankan Women Chemists Breakfast 2023

For the third consecutive year, the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon had successfully organized “The Sri Lankan Women Chemists Breakfast” to coincide with the IUPAC Global Women Breakfast. The event was held on 14th February 2023, 9.00 a.m. at the Adamantane House, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon and through the virtual platform Zoom. This year the event was themed “Women Empowerment in Chemical Sciences in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals”. The event commenced with the welcome address by Prof. H.M.D. Namal Priyantha, Dean, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon followed by the introduction to the event by Prof. Priyani Paranagama, Chairperson, Women Chemists Committee. The Chief Guest, Ms. Manoja Jayawardena, Director/ CEO of Automated Barcode Solutions Pvt Ltd and the Guest of Honour, Ms. Nalini Kanchana Munasinghe, Manager, People’s Bank were impressed the audience by their valuable thoughts and life time experiences as women.

The women chemists’ committee had organized two competitions to coincide with the breakfast event. The essay competition on “The Role of Chemists towards Social Well-being” targeted, female undergraduates from chemistry departments at state universities & institutions across Sri Lanka. The winner of the competition was given an opportunity to showcase her writing ability as a young woman chemist by presenting her essay at the event. The essay competition was coordinated by Dr. Medha Gunaratna. The “Photographic Abstract Competition” targeted, female undergraduates, graduate students and research assistants pursuing research in academia. The participants were invited to submit a research abstract by a single photograph. The final round of the competition was also held at the breakfast event, where the two finalists were invited for their oral presentations. The Photographic Abstract competition was coordinated by Prof. Suranga Wickramarachchi.

The winners of the two competitions were announced and the prizes for the winners will be awarded at the Annual Sessions of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon. The event was concluded with the Vote of thanks by Dr. Gobika Thiripuranathar, Secretary, Women Chemists Committee followed by the traditional Sri Lankan Breakfast.