| Honorific-Prefix: | Sri Lanka Sikhamani |
| Thamotharam Somasekaram | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | FRGS |
| Order1: | 37th |
| Office1: | Surveyor General of Sri Lanka |
| Term Start1: | 1991 |
| Term End1: | 1992 |
| Predecessor1: | E. M. Perera |
| Successor1: | S. Berugoda |
| Birth Date: | 22 September 1934 |
| Alma Mater: | Jaffna Hindu College University of Ceylon Fitzwilliam College Ohio State University |
| Profession: | Surveyor |
| Blank1: | Ethnicity |
| Data1: | Sri Lankan Tamil |
Sri Lanka Sikhamani Thamotharam Somasekaram (22 September 1934 - 11 March 2010) was a leading Sri Lankan Tamil geographer and Surveyor General.
Somasekaram was born on 22 September 1934.[1] He was educated at the Jaffna Hindu College.[2] [3] After school he joined the University of Ceylon, Colombo from where he graduated in 1956 with a BSc degree.[1] [4] [5]
Somasekaram married Sathanithi. They had three children (Damayanthi, Jayanthi and Arjun).[6] [7]
After university Somasekaram joined the Government Survey Department as an Assistant Superintendent of Surveys.[1] [4] A year later he joined Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1958 to study the Part II course in geography, which he completed in 1959.[1] On returning to Ceylon he rejoined the Survey Department.[1] [4] He became Superintendent of Surveys in 1967, Assistant Surveyor General in 1971 and Deputy Surveyor General in 1973.[1] [4] The latter position made in head of the Institute of Surveying and Mapping.[4]
Somasekaram joined the Ohio State University in 1976 on a United Nations Fellowship, graduating with an MSc in Geodesy and Cartography.[1] [4] [5]
Somasekaram became Surveyor General in 1991.[1] [8] He came up with the idea of the Sri Lankan Atlas and chaired the committee charged with creating it.[1] [4] He was awarded the Sri Lanka Sikhamani title, a Sri Lankan national honour, in 1990 for this work.[1]
Somasekaram was president of the Surveyors' Institute of Sri Lanka (1985–87) and the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science.[1] [4] [9] In 1998 he was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Jaffna.[1] [4] He was vice-president of the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka between 1985 and 1991 and a member of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics.[4]
Somasekaram wrote a number of books after retirement.[4] Among them are: Surveying Stories,[10] and Arjuna's A-Z Street Guide.[11]
He died on 11 March 2010.