Minister Premajayantha, Chairman Karunaratne, Professor Sivananthan, pricey colleagues of the Sri Lankan scientific neighborhood, good afternoon.

Science turns challenges into alternatives.

Thank you for this chance to hitch you right this moment with a few of the brightest scientific minds of Sri Lanka.  I’m right here as a result of I respect you and I worth your work.  Your work, your innovation, and your collaboration will profoundly influence the way forward for this nation, maybe of the world.  You all are creating the long run and making new options, new goals doable.  So let me begin off by thanking you in your dedication and your service.  As Dr. Siva simply stated, scientists use their ardour, perseverance, and perception to drive innovation.  I consider you might be all doing precisely that.

As you understand, the United States additionally has a proud custom in scientific innovation.  Well-known inventors of the previous have known as the United States their residence, together with Alexander Graham Bell who invented the phone, Thomas Edison who invented the carbon filament gentle bulb, Henry Ford who pioneered shifting meeting traces for cars, the Wright brothers who made the primary human flight in historical past, and Jonas Salk who invented the trendy polio vaccine.  Maybe a reputation you haven’t heard is Hedy Lamarr, a well-known actress who in her spare time helped create the ideas behind our trendy wi-fi expertise.

We proceed to steer on this entrance right this moment to the advantage of the worldwide neighborhood.  American scientists and innovators led the worldwide initiative to decode the human DNA by means of the Human Genome Project, quickened the detection of lethal ailments akin to Ebola, designed semiconductor energy traces for environment friendly energy grids, invented GPS navigation for world use, and constructed and launched telescopes to check the universe.

But there’s one identify in science that I’m particularly pleased with:  my father.  My father was raised in Korea and moved to the United States after I was a toddler.  He was an engineer by commerce however needed to be taught English and work his manner up from the bottom ground within the U.S.  But his smarts, his scientific pondering, and his ingenuity served him, and he ended up working with NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory on all types of aeronautic science.  You know the Mars Lander?  He designed the touchdown equipment!  And he helped to rebuild the U.S. house shuttle program by fixing the O-ring challenge that prompted the Challenger explosion.  My dad lives, works, and breathes science – similar to a whole lot of you!  So although I really feel a bit intimidated in a room stuffed with scientists, I share your love for science that my father shared with me.

That’s why it warmed my coronary heart to be taught that a few of Sri Lanka’s celebrated scientists additionally made contributions to NASA’s mission to know outer house.  The late evolutionary chemist Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma born in Galle, was one among NASA’s lead investigators who analyzed lunar soil introduced residence by the Apollo spaceflight missions.  In 2016, Dr. Nipuni Palliyaguru was a part of a group of researchers at Texas Tech University to show that Einstein’s concept of normal relativity was proper by detecting gravitational waves from two merging black holes.  And the collaboration with NASA continues – from an American on my group who works remotely for NASA to a Sri Lankan-American professor from the U.S. who shall be visiting Sri Lanka this summer season to know what Sri Lanka’s soil can inform us about different planets.  Beyond my favourite matter of house, although, there’s amazingly various topic experience amongst this viewers of Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan-American students.  It ranges from biology to physics and represents the colourful historical past of information alternate between our two international locations.

There are quite a few initiatives and packages that maintain the connection between our two international locations sturdy.  As a part of President Biden’s plans to prioritize the scientific innovation within the inexperienced vitality sector, we convene private and non-private vitality sector counterparts to debate cooperation on inexperienced expertise.  For 70 years the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission has funded U.S.-Sri Lanka scholarships throughout many scientific fields.  U.S. alternate packages just like the International Visitor Leadership Program allow consultants to go to the United States, meet with American counterparts, and alternate concepts.  Last yr, Sri Lankan vitality sector consultants visited the United States to fulfill with trade leaders and authorities regulators to discover development and upkeep of energy-efficient energy grids.  USAID’s Sri Lankan Energy Project invests in renewable vitality applied sciences in partnership with the Sri Lankan authorities and native entrepreneurs.  Meanwhile, the USAID Climate Adaptation Project in Sri Lanka identifies and scales up options to climate-related challenges for sustainable, market-based development in tourism, fisheries, and agriculture.  Just final month, USAID and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization introduced collectively agriculture topic consultants from Sri Lanka and the United States to fulfill with the Ministry of Agriculture and focus on methods to enhance rice productiveness and modernize agriculture in Sri Lanka, one among President Wickremesinghe’s priorities.

And after all, our dedication to Sri Lanka runs deeper.  Over the previous yr the United States has supplied $270 million to assist probably the most susceptible Sri Lankan throughout the financial disaster.  In the previous few weeks, I’ve visited farms and faculties benefiting from fertilizers and fortified rice donated by the U.S. authorities.  Minister Susil joined me this week at a college the place we noticed youngsters receiving meals supplied by the U.S.  That help is ongoing, a testomony to the depth and breadth of our relationship – which, by the best way, is 75 years sturdy this yr.  I’m delighted to be right here right this moment to have a good time 75 years of individuals, partnerships, and progress.

The United States desires to see a wholesome, vibrant, and democratic Sri Lanka – however we additionally acknowledge that Sri Lanka’s challenges are Sri Lanka’s to unravel.  So, as we proceed emergency help, we are also specializing in offering long-term technical help in varied areas meant to empower Sri Lankans to develop financial well being and good governance.  We fund renewable vitality initiatives, present technical steerage on environment friendly farming practices, and assist small- and medium-sized enterprises to assist grassroots innovation.  This work builds in your science, your concepts, and your imaginative and prescient for Sri Lanka’s future.

The matter of this convention – sustainable growth within the face of local weather change – is among the nice challenges of our time.  It impacts your complete world neighborhood.  I consider that you just all, as the most effective and brightest of Sri Lanka’s science and expertise subject, signify the important thing for a way we are able to overcome this problem.  You can flip it into a possibility for innovation that advantages the general public good.  I’m so glad to see a various group of scientists joined by the personal sector, academia, and civil society all right here to work collectively on these targets.  And it’s nice to see girls scientists right here as nicely, as we mark Women’s History month, though I hope by the subsequent biennial convention we’ll see much more girls amongst you.

I’ll conclude by saying once more, the United States stands with you as a devoted associate within the pursuit of science and expertise.

By U.S. Embassy Colombo | 27 March, 2023 | Topics: Ambassador, News, Speeches