Cyril Ponnamperuma Quotes

Dr. Cyril Andrew Ponnamperuma was born in Galle, Sri Lanka. He was a Sri Lankan scientist in the fields of chemical evolution and the origin of life. He proceeded to India and in 1948 obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Madras. Later he moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled at Birkbeck, University of London, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1959. Afterwards he proceeded to the United States, where in 1962 he received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of the Nobel Laureate Melvin Calvin. In 1962, he was honoured with a National Academy of Science resident associateship with NASA at Ames Research Center. He was selected as the principal investigator for analysis of lunar soil brought to earth by Project Apollo. Since 1971 he provided his service to University of Maryland as a Professor of Chemistry as well as the Director of the laboratory of chemical evolution. He was the first director of the "Arthur C. Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies" in Sri Lanka, and in 1984 was appointed science advisor to the President of Sri Lanka by the late President J. R. Jayewardene.