Sri Lanka Sikhamani Thamotharam Somasekaram (22 September 1934 – 11 March 2010) was a leading

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...

geographer and

Surveyor General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor ge ...

Early life and family

Somasekaram was born on 22 September 1934. He was educated at the

Jaffna Hindu College Jaffna Hindu College ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாணம் இந்துக் கல்லூரி, translit=Yāḻppāṇam Intuk Kallūri; si, යාපනය හින්දු විද්‍යාලය, translit=Yāpanaya Hindu Vidyāl ...

. After school he joined the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univer ...

, Colombo from where he graduated in 1956 with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

degree. Somasekaram married Sathanithi. They had three children (Damayanthi, Jayanthi and Arjun).

Career

After university Somasekaram joined the Government Survey Department as an Assistant Superintendent of Surveys. A year later he joined

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

in 1958 to study the Part II course in geography, which he completed in 1959. On returning to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

he rejoined the Survey Department. He became Superintendent of Surveys in 1967, Assistant Surveyor General in 1971 and Deputy Surveyor General in 1973. The latter position made in head of the Institute of Surveying and Mapping. Somasekaram joined the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1976 on a United Nations Fellowship, graduating with an MSc in Geodesy and Cartography. Somasekaram became

in 1991. He came up with the idea of the Sri Lankan Atlas and chaired the committee charged with creating it. He was awarded the Sri Lanka Sikhamani title, a Sri Lankan national honour, in 1990 for this work. Somasekaram was president of the Surveyors' Institute of Sri Lanka (1985–87) and the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1998 he was admitted as a fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the

University of Jaffna The University of Jaffna ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாணப் பல்கலைக்கழகம், translit=Yāḻppāṇap Palkalaikkaḻakam; si, යාපනය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, ''Yāpanaya Viśvavidyālaya''; ...

. He was vice-president of the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka between 1985 and 1991 and a member of the

Canadian Institute of Geomatics The Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG, French: ''Association canadienne des sciences géomatiques'') is a not-for-profit scientific association based in Ottawa, Ontario devoted to the development of geomatics in Canada. It was previously known as ...

Later life

Somasekaram wrote a number of books after retirement. He died on 11 March 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Somasekaram, T. 1934 births 2010 deaths Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Alumni of Jaffna Hindu College Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Ohio State University alumni People associated with the University of Jaffna S Sri Lanka Sikhamani Sri Lankan Tamil geographers Sri Lankan Tamil writers