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Role Players 2018


Senior Professor Lakshman Dissanayake

Vice Chancellor
University of Colombo

Professor Lakshman Dissanayake entered the University of Colombo in June 1973 as an undergraduate and there onward, and continued to remain in the university by joining the university as an academic after obtaining First Class Honours for the first degree. Thereafter, he received his postgraduate qualifications: PG Diploma from the University of Colombo; Master of Arts from the Vrije Universitiet Brussels, Belgium and PhD from the University of Adelaide Australia. Presently Professor Dissanayake functions as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo as well as Senior Professor in the Department of Demography. During his tenure in the University of Colombo, he also held various positions such as Rector of Sri Palee Campus, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Acting Vice Chancellor on various occasions. Professor Lakshman Dissanayake founded the Colombo University Community Centre (CUCEC) which is a first multidisciplinary centre in the whole university system devoted to community extension related work. He also functioned as its founding Director.

Professor Dissanayake also have been honoured by various esteemed positions and awards both nationally and internationally by recognizing his contribution to the field of demography. Following are only a few that are selected from a vast number of academic distinctions. He received 'Excellence in Research' award (University of Colombo) and 'Excellence in Research: Highest Grant Recipient' award (Committee of Vice Chancellors and Directors in Sri Lanka. He was invited by the SAARC Secretariat as an Independent Expert (from a team of three experts) to prepare the SAARC Regional Poverty Profile 2009-10. Professor Dissanayake also functions as the Lead Consultant for the preparation of Population Situation Analysis of Sri Lanka for the United Nations Population Fund.

He has been honoured by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of the Australian Government by inviting him to serve on a six-member panel on 'Irregular Migration Research International Reference Panel' as well as the Member of the Research Advisory Group of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of the Australian Government. Recently, he was invited to be a Member of the Migration Research Leaders Syndicate of the International Organization of Migration, Geneva, Switzerland by recognizing my contribution to the field of International Migration. In November 2017, Professor Dissanayake was also honored by the Yunnan University of China conferring an Honorary Professorship. His expertise includes regional demography, regional development planning, health demography and post-disaster reconstruction. I have published books, book chapters and numerous research articles in local and internationally reputed journals.