Rohan Samarajiva, Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia was awarded the prestigious 2009 “Communication Research as an Agent of Change Award” by the International Communication Association (ICA) at the 59th Annual conference of the ICA on 23 May 2009, in Chicago, USA.
The award honors one person each year whose work has had a demonstrable impact on practice outside the academy, with clear benefits to the community.
The award was presented to him by Patrice M. Buzzanell, President of the International Communication Association.
At the ceremony a brief statement about his accomplishments and the ways his work has had sustainable social benefits was presented by the ICA:
“Dr. Rohan Samarajiva has co-edited a volume, ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks, that exemplifies the intention of this award, i.e., to show ways in which a significant engagement with research can influence communication change. This work highlights a very important but often under-researched region focusing on five Aisan countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka… A central thread underpinning all the viewpoints provided in the book is that technology itself cannot improve access to ICTs; policy and regulatory reform is critical. In providing data that challenges the vested and frequently dysfunctional interests which have underpinned past and present governance structures, this important research becomes in itself a significant marker of ways to work towards policy and regulatory reform.”
The 2009 conference of the ICA, themed “Keywords in Communication” took place from 21-25 May 2009 in Chicago, USA. The ICA is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching, and application of all aspects of human and mediated communication. The ICA is over 50 years old, beginning as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now an international association with more than 4,300 members in 70 countries. The ICA includes 24 divisions and interest groups, each representing a special subfield of communication processes and phenomena
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