Dr. Siddhika G. Senaratne wins Gold award for Inspirational Women of the Year in Career Leadership

Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dr. Siddhika G. Senaratne

Sri Lanka Standards Institution Director General Dr. Siddhika G Senaratne recently won the Gold Award for Inspirational Women of the Year in Career Leadership 2020 in the annual competition organised by the Women in Management (WIM).

After completing a BSc degree (Honours) specialising in Chemistry from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dr Siddhika G Senaratne obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK in 2002. She made the first discovery of the direct induction of breast cancer cell death by the drug Zoledronic acid (a bisphosphonate). This was a breakthrough finding and has more than 530 citations in other peer-reviewed journals. Now Zoledronic acid is a drug used in treatment for breast cancer patients with bone metastases.

This was followed by two Post-doctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, USA and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Subsequently Dr. Siddhika moved back to Sri Lanka and in 2009 she was recruited by Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) the pioneer Scientific and Research and Development Institute in Sri Lanka to spearhead the establishment of a new Biotechnology Unit at the Institute and to head the unit. Upon successfully completing the establishment of the new unit, she has been pioneering in introducing and developing Biotechnology research and services in the Institute and had been very successful in obtaining external funding to secure a vigorous research program within a short span of two years.

Since August 2014, Dr. Siddhika was recruited by Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka as the Director Research, Planning, and Development. Dr. Siddhika has been very successful in obtaining funding from an International Donor agency (German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to upgrade rural centres and also forging private public partnerships with, Jetwing Hotels Sri Lanka and Associated Motorways Ltd. in developing and upgrading skills of rural youth.

Since August 2018 Dr. Siddhika assumed duties as the Director General/CEO of Sri Lanka Standard Institution. Within the first year itself after taking up the post, she has managed to increase institutional revenue by about 100 million.

In 2020 March during the lockdown period, developed the ‘COVID-19 Control Environment’ system standard while facing immense challenges of directing officers from home to achieve the completion within a very short time span to benefit the country from the pandemic situation. The initiative started off with the Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives as the strategic partner resulted in being the first of such tools used in the world to combat spread of the COVID-19 virus.

As of today there are over 200 companies who have applied for the certification. The strategic objective is to drive Sri Lanka for a V-shaped recovery.

All these career achievements of Dr. Siddhika were accomplished while being a caring mother never compromising her motherly duties to her dear son.