[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.

[4] Somasekaram joined the Ohio State University in 1976 on a United Nations Fellowship, graduating with an MSc in Geodesy and Cartography.

[1][8] He came up with the idea of the Sri Lankan Atlas and chaired the committee charged with creating it.

[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.