Indira Samarasekera

Indira Samarasekera
Indira V. Samarasekera at the World Economic Forum, Annual Meeting of the New Champions, 2009.
President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta
Term	1 July 2005 – present
Predecessor	Roderick D. Fraser
Born	April 11, 1952 (1952-04-11) (age 59) Colombo, Sri Lanka
Alma mater	University of Sri Lanka University of California, Davis University of British Columbia

Indira Vasanti Samarasekera,^[1] OC (born April 11, 1952)^[2] is the 12th and current President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta. Succeeding Roderick Fraser on July 1, 2005, she was the first female president of any university in Alberta.

Biography

Samarasekara was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, of Tamil descent, and was married to a Sinhalese. She received her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sri Lanka in 1974 and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1976; she immigrated to Canada in 1977, where she received her Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering at the University of British Columbia in 1980.

That year, Samarasekara began work in the Department of Metals and Materials Engineering at UBC with a focus on the continuous casting and hot rolling of steel.^[3] In 2000 she was appointed UBC's Vice-President Research.

In 2002, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She was appointed to the board of directors for Scotiabank in 2008.^[4]

Controversy

On July 1, 2009, the University of Alberta purchased President Samarasekera's private residence for $930,000. The home was renovated soon after the purchase, using an undisclosed amount of money from the University's capital budget.^[5] The University administration, including Samarasekera, has been criticized by students and the media for completing the purchase and renovations in spite of operating budget shortfalls.

In a interview with the Edmonton Journal on October 21, 2009,^[6] Samarasekera raised her concerns regarding the fact that 58% of university undergraduates in Canada are female. She continued to comment: "I'm going to be an advocate for young white men, because I can be. No one is going to question me when I say we have a problem"; as well as, "we'll wake up in 20 years and we will not have the benefit of enough male talent at the heads of companies and elsewhere." A group of students calling themselves the "Samarasekera Response Team" responded by putting up around 300 posters satirizing her comments^[7] . President Samarasekera responded by emailing the entire student body stating that she appreciated satire as a form of freedom of speech, but that such debate should be held in a cordial and respectable manner.

References

• University of Alberta bio information
• Rising Up Against Rankings by Indira Samaasekera, Inside Higher Ed, April 2, 2007.
• http://scotiabank.com/cda/content/0,1608,CID12292_LIDen,00.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/01/29/edmonton-university-fee-increase.htmlhttp://www.edmontonjournal.com/administrators+face+furloughs+salary+cuts/2333907/story.html

1. ^ middle name according to LCNAF CIP data
2. ^ http://www.globecampus.ca/in-the-news/article/trading-in-her-hard-hat-to-lead-an-institution/
3. ^ http://www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=431
4. ^ http://www.scotiabank.com/cda/content/0,1608,CID12292_LIDen,00.html
5. ^ http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100805/edm_president_house_100805/20100805/?hub=EdmontonHome
6. ^ http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/More+women+than+making+grade/2123763/story.html
7. ^ http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/11/03/11615366-sun.html

Academic offices
Preceded by Roderick D. Fraser	President of the University of Alberta 2005–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Samarasekera, Indira
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 11, 1952
Place of birth	Colombo, Sri Lanka
Date of death
Place of death