Yesterday morning, I received the very sad news of Vidyajothi Emirutus Prof. Erick Karunanayake’s passing. I associated with him closely for more than three decades, starting in the latter part of 1996. When I returned to Sri Lanka, I was one of the few who knew how to connect Apple Macintoshes to the Internet using dial-up. Prof. Eric used Apple Macintoshes to run DNA sequencing at his lab at the University of Colombo Medical Campus, and this was long before the Institute of Molecular Biology came into being. Prof. Samaranayake sent me to the Colombo Medical College to help connect Prof. Erick’s Apple to the Internet.
I vaguely remember walking into his lab, and Prof. Eric was in a small room in the Colombo Medical College, surrounded by piles of books. He showed me the Apple, and I recall connecting the Apple, which was on a long wooden table by the window that overlooked the courtyard of the Colombo Medical College. After connecting, I had a conversation with him. At the time, he was the sitting Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Colombo Medical Faculty. I told him that I had a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Miami. He listened to me attentively and told me that he knew my father, Dr. Wijayawardhana, well. When his teacher, Prof. Stanley Wijesundara, who was my father’s teacher too, was the chair of Biochemistry at the University of Colombo, my father was a regular visitor to the Department of Biochemistry. From that day in 1996 onwards, the two of us had a very close friendship and collaboration until 2022-23. He even came to my wedding ceremony, which was held in Kandy.
Prof. Erick was a regular visitor to my lab at the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC). When the IBMBB was formed, he wanted me to design several high-performance computing labs to execute DNA sequencing, which I did. I helped him purchase high-end computers, which could have been used as a rendering farm for Maya and 3D Studio MAX if anyone wanted. A fiber network with VLANs was installed at IBMMB, and I dreamt of having high-speed Internet at IBMMB. To accomplish this, a fiber cable was laid between UCSC and IBMMB to connect two fiber backbones, bypassing the Campus Wide Area Network. Today, IBMMB is connected to Internet 2 and grid computing, if I’m correct.
Prof. Erick wanted my staff to design a crest for the nascent IBMMB. At the SDU, we explored several ideas for the institute crest, comparing the University of Colombo crest. We decided to deviate from the norm and use the University of Harvard crest as an example. Prof. Erick and I wanted the DNA double helix in the crest, and the present crest symbolizes advances in Genetic Research and modernity. A young graphic artist by the name of Yara at my lab came up with the colors and the crest of the institute, which is used today. We also designed the first website for the institute.
During the mid-2000s, after the IBMMB came into existence, Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe of UCSC and I were involved heavily with Prof. Erick to come up with a joint master’s program in Bioinformatics with the UCSC. Although I wanted to work on the Master’s program and research in Bioinformatics (I specialized in Bioinformatics), I could not continue working with him after 2008 and 9 due to my heavy workload in developing Software.
My relationship continued with him, and I recall once he visited our new Theekshana office at the Malasekera Mawatha and had a long chat into the late evening. Personally, his passing away is a tragic loss for my family and the closing of another chapter of my life in Sri Lanka.
May his soul rest in peace!
By Mr. Harsha Wijayawardhana