SLAYS

Department of Plant Sciences

University of Colombo

Dr. Thilini A. Perera is a lecturer in Plant- Biotechnology and is attached to the Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. Her research interests include, Plant-Microbe interactions, Soil biology and IoT usage in crop cultivations etc. She has won a Senate Award for Research Excellence awarded by the University of Colombo for the year 2017. Dr. Perera has been a member of SLAYS from the year 2017 and has held many prestigious positions through the years as a council member of SLAYS. She was a gold medalist and the  1st runner up in the first ever 3MT thesis competition organized by SLAYS in 2017. She has held the positions of Chairperson 3MT competition, 2019; Secretary SLAYS, 2020 and the President-Elect SLAYS in 2021. Dr. Perera has represented SLAYS in the GYA (Global Young Academy) meetings in the years 2020 and 202

Director, Undergraduate
Studies / Senior Lecturer

Department of Earth Resources Engineering

University of Moratuwa

Dr. Chulantha Jayawardena holds a PhD in Neotectonics from the School of
Earth & Environmental Sciences of the University of Wollongong and a
bachelor’s degree in Earth Resources Engineering from the University of
Moratuwa. His enthusiasm towards multidisciplinary collaborations has
paved path towards research on mine rehabilitation related rock
mechanics, sustainable consumption of earth resources and incorporating
inclusive engineering aspects to the engineering education, in which his
scholarly contributions have been recognized with distinction awards. Dr
Jayawardena has also served the industry in the capacity of Mining &
Geotechnical Engineer associated with nationally significant development
projects, during his early career prior to joining the academia. At present,
his contributions and involvements are primarily focused on academic
administration and student management in addition to the regular
teaching, research and mentoring activities as an academic.

Senior Lecturer

Department of Chemistry

Faculty of Applied Sciences

University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Dr. Upul Kumarasinghe completed his BSc Honours Degree in Chemistry at University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 2009. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from Mississippi State University USA in 2016. Dr. Upul is working as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. His research interests are synthesis of bioactive small molecules, Green organic synthesis, microwave-assisted organic synthesis, solid-supported organic synthesis, extraction and chemical modification of natural products and their applications. Dr. Upul serves as a council member of the SLAYS in 2020/2021 council year.

Lecturer/Coordinator Research Office

&

Academic Development Committee

Department of Research

CINEC Campus

Dr Nimshi Fernando is a lecturer in chemistry and the Coordinator Research Office & Academic Development Committee at CINEC Campus Malabe. She has a strong passion for scientific research and her research interests are in the field of Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Surface chemistry etc. Dr. Fernando was awarded several awards including the Best poster award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications Symposium: Innovation in Materials Science and Technology and SLAAS Postgraduate research merit award in recognition of the contribution towards postgraduate research carried out in Sri Lanka. Dr. Fernando joined SLAYS in 2016 and has been an active member.Dr Nimshi Fernando is a lecturer in chemistry and the Coordinator Research Office & Academic Development Committee at CINEC Campus Malabe. She has a strong passion for scientific research and her research interests are in the field of Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Surface chemistry etc. Dr. Fernando was awarded several awards including the Best poster award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications Symposium: Innovation in Materials Science and Technology and SLAAS Postgraduate research merit award in recognition of the contribution towards postgraduate research carried out in Sri Lanka. Dr. Fernando joined SLAYS in 2016 and has been an active member.

Deputy HOD/ Senior Lecturer

Department of Cosmaceutical sciences

Faculty of Health Sciences

CINEC Campus

Dr Kalpani Ratnayake is a deputy HOD/ Senior lecturer in Department of Cosmetic Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, CINEC Campus, Malabe. She completed her B.Sc. Human Biology (Special) degree at Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the same university in 2018. She has won certain national and international awards including “Postgraduate Research Award 2019” from the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), Section E2, “International Award” at the 64^th Annual Meeting, Japanese Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences (JALAS) in 2017 in Fukushima, Japan. Also, she is an awardee for the Asian Federation of Laboratory Animal Science/ Korean Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AFLAS/ KALAS) Next Generation Academic Exchange Program in 2019. She is the current president of the Sri Lanka Association of Laboratory Animal Science and treasurer in the Sri Lanka National Chapter of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (SLNC-OWSD)- 2021/2022. Also, she is an executive committee member of the College of Biochemists Sri Lanka (CBSL) since 2019 and the Society for Alternatives to Animal Testing in Sri Lanka (SAAT-SL)- 2021/2023. Her research interests include the anti-inflammatory action of natural products.

Senior Lecturer / Chartered Architect

Department of Estate Management and Valuation

Management Studies and Commerce

University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Dr. Chameera Udawattha graduated from the University of Moratuwa and is now a Senior Lecturer attached to the Department of Estate Management and Valuation at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. In addition, he is a chartered architect, consulting on many large scale commercial and residential projects in Sri Lanka including the Kandy highway. His teaching subjects are building construction, construction technology, building pathology, and cost estimation. He is also an active researcher, conducting many studies at the department. He has published interdisciplinary projects in a variety of outlets and received numerous awards, including the highest “H” index award in 2020, President’s Awards for Scientific Publication in 2018, President’s Award for the most outstanding research in 2021, Gold medalist, the Architect Research & Publication Award for the year 2019-2020, The Research Award – Sri Lanka Institute of Architects 2020, and the Best Paper Award by the Global Academic Research Institute 2017 etc.

Senior Lecturer

Department of Basic Sciences

Faculty of Allied Health Sciences

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

She is a life member of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement (SLAAS) of Science from 2008 and joined Section D, as the secretary in 2019 and hold the presidency of section D during the year of 2021. Presently she is a member of Environment Committee, SLAAS and one of the joint secretaries of College of Biochemists Sri Lanka. She is a founder member of Sri Lanka Association for Laboratory Animal Science and was the honorary treasurer from 2015 to 2017. She has been a council member of Sri Lankan Academy of Young Scientists, during years of 2019/2020 and 2021/2022. She is also an active council member in Sri Lanka National Chapter of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and was a member of the council of Institute of Biologists during 2019/2020. She is a life /full member of Young Scientists Forum of Sri Lanka, Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research in Germany, International society for Ethnopharmacology, Full member of the Phytochemical Society of Europe, Organization for Women in Sciences for the Developing World and United Nations Association in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Lecturer 

Faculty of Technology

University of Sri Jayawardhenepura

Department of Applied Computing

University of Kelaniya

Lecturer

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Faculty of  Medicine

University of Colombo

Dr. Meran Keshawa Ediriweera is a lecturer in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr. Ediriweera joined SLAYS in 2022.

Senior Lecturer

College of Chemical Sciences

Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Dr. Dinusha Udukala graduated from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka with a BSc in Chemistry and completed her PhD at Kansas State University. Her research interests include isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds from natural products, development of bio-pesticides to control agricultural pests in Sri Lanka, and synthesis and evaluation of Quinazolinone derivatives as urease inhibitors.Dr. Udukala has served as a visiting lecturer at the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka and currently serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon where she has worked as an academic for the past eight years, while holding many key positions including the Secretary of the Women Chemists Committee (2019-present), Secretary for Educational Affairs (2021/22), Assistant Treasurer of IChemC (2016-2018) and as a member of the Editorial & Publicity Committee (2020/21). She also serves as an active Council member of the Sri Lanka Academy of Young Scientists (SLAYS), and the committee member of the section E2 of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS)

Speech-Language Pathologist,

Visiting Lecturer,

Certified Trainer,

Certified Accelerated Learning Coach,

CEO The Bridge International Inst

The Bridge International Institute

Dr. Nimeera Weerarathne graduated from Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniaya and completed his PhD at Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo (2020). In the year 2018, he received a fully funded scholarship to IBRO-APRC school held at All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India and completed a special training on Neural Plasticity in Health and diseases. In addition, he has obtained specialized intensive training on Dysphagia assessment and management from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya (2012). His PhD study was focused on development of culturally and linguistically appropriate Sinhala language reading comprehension assessment for post-stroke aphasia. Dr. Weerarathne is a gold medalist of 3MT competition 2019 founded by the University of Queensland and conducted by Sri Lankan Academy of Young Scientists (SLAYS). Also, he is the International Student awardee of the Asian Indian caucus of American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) in the year 2017. Dr. Weerarathne is a founder member of Sri Lankan Association of Speech and Language Pathologists (SLASLP) and he was the President of SLASLP for the period of year 2019 to 2021. In addition, he is a member of Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA) since 2019. He has served as a consultant for many of the early intervention projects conducted in Maldives from the year 2014-2019. He is currently serving as a visiting lecturer at the university of Colombo, university of Peradeniya, Open University of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Dr. Nimeera Weerarathne is the co-founder and the CEO of The Bridge International Institute where he is providing his expertise in order to improve the personal excellence of children, teenagers, youth, adults and elderly people. He is also the founder of the “Path to voice” media platform, which aims to raise awareness about parenting, elderly care, speech-language pathology, communication impairment, special needs education and many more topics related to wholesome development of children and adults

Assistant Lecture

Department of Nuclear Science

Faculty of Science

University of Colombo

Ms. Wickramasinghe is an academic and an experimental biologist. She graduated from the University of Colombo completing her Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Medical Science (Hon.) and is currently reading for her PhD in radiation Biology. She has been an active member of SLAYS since 2018. She is also involved in many national and international activities related to nuclear science, radiation and radioisotopes

Research Assistant

Department of Physics

University of Ruhuna

Sri Lanka

Dhanushka Amaradasa is a Researcher at the Department of Physics University of Ruhuna ,Sri Lanka.He earned his B.Sc. degree in 2014,and initiated a research on astronomy instrumentation in 2015 . He completed his Master of Philosophy degree in Astronomy Instrumentation in 2021,thesis titled “Establishment of a wide field telescopic system for observing Near-Earth Objects (NEO) entering Sri Lankan sky” where he designed and developed an autonomous all-sky camera network and a wide-field telescope system for detecting fast optical transients. Fabrication of aspheric telescope optics, designing of High-Vacuum optical coating system, and  embedded system for all-sky monitoring were some of the  main outcomes  of his research work. The all-sky camera network  he made served as the first meteor detection network in Sri Lanka and generated several patanable products.His research field includes observational astronomy, planetary sciences,digital signal processing, optics and photonics , vacuum engineering, additive manufacturing, computer-aided design and simulation,microcontrollers and  embedded systems.He was a finalist of the 2018  Three Minute Thesis Competition organized by the Sri Lanka Young Scientist forum and  a  active astronomy communicator.Currently, he is serving as the National Outreach Coordinator for Sri Lanka, at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO).

Research Assistant

Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences

Faculty of Science

University of Colombo

Praneeth Ratnayake graduated in Immunology and Integrative Molecular biology in 2017 from the Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo.  Currently he is reading for his MPhil degree and engaged in the field of stem cells. He is currently working on developing naturally derived compositions to enhance skin regeneration and melanogenesis