Advisory Panel
Disaster Service’s distinguished advisory panel provides informed support and direction for our research, statistical, computational, linguistic and interpretive work here. They are generously contributing to the work already and shall continue to do so in the future.
Eng. Neil Devadasan – IT Director, The Polis Center, Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), Indiana, USA
Devadasan designs and develops computer applications for community information systems and for the social sciences. He has streamlined back-office data processing for the social Assets and vulnerabilities Indicators project. Devadasan also developed an interactive community information system for citizens of Central Indiana SAVI (http://www.savi.org). He did his graduate work at IUPUI and his undergraduate degree from the University of Peradeniya in Production Engineering. He was one of fifteen international fellows in the 2005-2006 Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Program at Stanford University.
Prof. Jude Fernando – Environmental Social Scientist
Prof. Jude Fernando is an associate professor at Clark University, Massachusetts in International Development and Social Change. He has obtained his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His areas of research interests are comparative roles of governmental and non-governmental institutions in the areas of sustainable development, environment, livelihoods, gender and empowerment, child labour, humanitarian assistance, and governance. He has published extensively on social sciences. While he has had interactions with our senior staff members for three decades, he is presently collaborating with DS on proposals
Prof. Piyasena Wickramagamage – GIS, Soils and Hydrology
Prof. Wickramagamage is working as an Emeritus Professor of geography at the University of Peradeniya and Senior Research Scientist at DS. He obtained his B.A in Geography at the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D. in Physical Geology from the University of London. His main areas of research include GIS, soils, hydrology, climate and EIA on all of which he has published extensively. He has been a partner, collaborator and Principal Investigator on several proposals and grants such as the Rainwater Harvesting Project (Prevention), master’s in development Practice Project (MacArthur), AgMIP project (DfID) and the PEER projects on Water and Hazards (National Academy of Sciences, USAID).
Dr. Ajith Gunaratne – Professor, Department of Mathematics Florida, Agricultural and Mechanical University
Dr. Ajith Gunaratne, is an assistant professor of Mathematics at the Florida, Agricultural and Mechanical University, USA. He had his graduate education at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA and his undergraduate education at the University of Peradeniya. He was previously attached to the Institute of Fundamental Studies and the University of Peradeniya.
Dr. M.T.M. Mahees – Senior Lecturer in Sociology and MA Coordinator for Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo.
Dr. M.T.M. Mahees has obtained his Bachelors and Masters in Sociology. He obtained his Ph. D. in Integrated Water Resource Management from the University of Peradeniya. His fields of interests are Sociological Theories, Environmental Sociology, Political Ecology, Water Resource, Solid Waste Management, Community Mobilization, Research Methodology, Volunteerism and Counseling. He has plenty of experience in university teaching and is currently the Senior Lecturer in Sociology and MA Coordinator for Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo.
Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe – IT Consultant
Vidhura Ralapanawe is an IT consultant with grounding on climate science, communications, corporate strategy and change. He has received a B.Sc. (Eng) from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 1996 and M.Sc. in Responsibility & Business Practice from the University of Bath, U.K.in 2000 and has obtained his Ph.D. in Organisational Change, Organisational Development, Change from Ashridge Business School in the UK. He has worked for IBM in New York and later as a consultant to the corporate sector in Sri Lanka on social and environmental risk management & business strategy. He is interested in sustainable development, technology and application of climate information. He handled the Sri Lanka case study of the Natural Disaster Hotspots Project for FECT. He is currently the Executive Vice President at Epic Group.
Dr. Nalin Wickramanayake – Civil Engineer
Dr. Nalin Wickramanayake obtained his B.Sc.(Eng) in Civil Engineering from the University of Peradeniya and his Ph. D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After serving at the University of Peradeniya and the Lanka Hydraulics Institute in a senior role, Nalin is now a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Nalin has collaborated with FECT with the MacArthur-supported Masters in Development Practice and on the UNESCO project on Coastal Inlets.
