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What’s in a Professorial Title? Dr. Nimal Chandrasena The honorific academic title “Professor” in Sri Lanka is confusing and mislead even educated professionals. Many of my friends, well-educated professionals in varied fields, refer to some individuals in Sri Lanka, especially those in the parliament and other endeavours, “He is a Professor”. The implication, pure and simple, is, “they, who are Professors, should know the stuff”! This is conjecture and often completely wrong. Most ‘professors’ may know their chosen fields of study quite well, but they may lack expertise in other areas and the common sense to admit that. The Sri Lanka media appears to keep referring to a few political ‘professorial’ people with another adjective added – calling them ‘senior professor’. The references galore, these days, given the debates on fertiliser and pesticide bans, organic agriculture and other topics that fall within the scientific realms. The references may also fall ...