IABM announces Tom McGann bursary winners

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has named additional recipients of the IABM's annual Tom McGann Training Bursary.
The three winners are: W A Shanthakumara, director of engineering, EAP Networks, Sri Lanka; Hameed Uddin Babar Khan, engineer-in-charge, PTV, Pakistan; and Tamana Darbani Farahani, head of computer department in the Technical Planning & Development Division of IRIB, Iran.
WA Shanthakumara joined the Sri Lankan national television broadcaster SLRC in 1982 as a technical officer and, after two years' training, he was released to the Sri Lanka TV Training Institute. In 1992 he was promoted to the position of technical manager of the institute and in 1993 he joined private TV broadcaster Teleshan as engineering manager. In March 2000 he was promoted to the position of director of engineering - MCR & maintenance.
Hameed Khan was a television engineer from 1976 until 1993 at the Television Centre of PTV. He was promoted to the post of engineer in charge in 1993 and held this position at several transmitting stations. He is member of the Pakistan Engineering Council and IEEE, and is the president of Pakistan Broadcast Engineering Association.
Tamana Farahani is doing a postgraduate course on management at the Management University in Tehran. She joined the computer department within the Technical Planning and Development Division of IRIB in 1996 as software manager. In 2000 she was promoted to head of the computer department. She is skilled in Vb, Delphi, Oracle Developer, and Vc programming languages.
Mr Shanthakumara and Mr Khan have left for the US for a month's course on radio and television design, operation and maintenance, organised by the US Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI). Ms Farahani is now in Cologne attending a course on network technology at the Deutsche Welle Training Centre.
Introduced at the IABM Peter Wayne Award presentations during IBC 2001, the bursary provides financial assistance totalling up to £20,000 per year, through responsible and recognised organisations to young engineers who would otherwise be unable to benefit from such formal training. The bursary recognises a life-long and significant contribution made to the international broadcasting community by Tom McGann, a former chairman of the IABM.
The IABM maintains contacts with all major exhibition organisers and has a formal presence at IBC, the NAB Convention and Broadcast Asia.
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