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This website is produced by the Climate Assessment, Prediction and Adaptation Team of Foundation for Environment , Climate and Technology Sri Lanka ( FECT ). The support of various members of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka and the International Research Institute for climate and society is gratefully acknowledged. However, we alone are responsible for the content here.

Yoosuf Ashraj :: Data Management

Yoosuf is reading for a degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. He manages our data resources and acquires data as needed. He is also undertaking climate impact analysis for dengue in Sri Lanka

Sumudu Adhikari :: Junior Research Scientist

Sumudu obtained a B.Sc in the Phsical Sciences at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2008 with honors. She undertakes climate data management and diagnostics.

Ranmalee Bandara :: Research Scientist (Junior)

Ranmalee Bandara obtained a B.Sc in Surveying at the University of Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka in 2005 with first class honors and an M.Sc in Environmental Soil Science from the University of Peradeniya in 2008. She had supported the work on the project on rainwater harvesting.

Janaki Chandimala :: Intermediate Research Engineer

Janaki Chandimala obtained a B.Sc in Civil Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1999 with honors and an M.Sc in Hydrology and Environmental Engineering from Hohai University, Nanjing, China in 2002. She modelled riverbed evolution in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River analytically and attempted to predict its future behaviour. An information system was developed to visualize and analyze the river behavior in a GIS domain. Since January 2003, she has been working climatic and hydro-meteorological analysis.

Susanthi Liyanaarachchi :: Research Engineer (Junior)

Susanthi Liyanaarachchi obtained a B.Sc in Chemical and Process Engineering with honors at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2005 and a post-graduate diploma in 2007 in the same field by research from the University of Peradeniya in 2008. She is supporting the project on seasonal climate forecasting for the Kelani river.

Badra Nawarathna :: Civil Engineer

Badra Nawarathna has been seconded from the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka to work on Weather and Climate Diagnostics useful for the Authority. She undertakes work on satellite rainfall estimates, evaporation and hydrological models. She has qualified as a Civil Engineer through the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka.

Zeenas Yahiya :: Projects Manager

Zeenas holds a degree in the Social Sciences from the Open University of Sri Lanka with honors. She has four years of experience in scientific documentation at the Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy. In addition to her work as the Project Manager she also serves as our Social Scientist with expertise in Economics, Communication and Sociology.

Advisors

Lareef Zubair :: Principal Scientist

Lareef Zubair is an Associate Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and advises FECT as its principal scientist. He received a B.Sc from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1987 and a M.S and a Ph.D. from Yale University, U.S.A. in 1989 and 1993 respectively. Prior to joining the IRI, he was a Post-Doctoral Associate in Mathematics and Engineering at Yale University, a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka. He is interested in tropical climate, climate impacts and adaptation, and in the application of climate information.

Neil Devadasan :: Consultant Systems Engineer

Neil obtained his B.Sc in Production Engineering from the University of Peradeniya and has trained in Systems Engineering and GIS at the Indiana University Purdue University at Indianopolis (IUPUI). He is a Director of the Polis Center which addresses common community problems and issues through innovating approaches in IT, GIS and other advanced technology. Neil collaborates with FECT in producing an interactive map server for Sri Lanka and in establishing the Tsunami assistance portal

Ruvini Perera :: Consultant Hydrologist

Ruvini Perera received a B.Sc from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1995 in Civil Engineering and a M.S in Environmental Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1999. She has previously been employed at the Coast Conservation Department of the Government of Sri Lanka as a Coastal Engineer. Since, 1999, she has been employed as a Civil and Environmental Engineer at TAMS Consultants, New York. She is interested in hydrological modelling, water resources management and environmental assessments. She supports statistical, GIS and analytical work needed for the project to exploit the climate information to help alleviate Human-Elephant-Conflict in Sri Lanka.

Vidura Ralapanawe :: IT Consultant

Vidhura Ralapanawe received a B.Sc (Eng) from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 1996 and a M.Sc in Responsibility & Business Practice from the University of Bath, U.K. in 2000. He has worked for IBM in New York and later as a consultant on social and environmental risk management & business strategy to the corporate sector in Sri Lanka. He is interested in sustainable development, technology and application of climate information. He is handling the Sri Lanka case study of the Natural Disaster Hotspots Project. He is also working with the IRI Data Library with multiple datasets for climate analysis and downscaling.

Sabry Razick :: Consultant, Scientific Computation

Sabry obtained his B.S in Microbiology from the University of Kelaniya and after serving there as an Assistant Lecturer, he completed his M.Sc in Bioinformatics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and is reading for a Ph.D at the University of Oslo. He has been supporting FECT since its inception in the computing infrastructure and scientific computation.

Sanjeewa Maithripala :: Computational Mathematics

Maithripala obtained his B.S and M.Phil in Engineering from the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D at the Texas Technological University. He has collaborated with FECT on the Tsunami work, in developing a proposal for a masters in sustainable development and presently in simple mathematical models for weather and climate.

Sarith Mahanama :: Land Surface Modeling and Meteorological Remote Sensing

Sarith obtained his B.S in Civil Engineering from the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D from the University of Hong Kong. He has been attached to the NASA Land Surfacing Modeling group at Greenbelt, MD since 2001. Sarith recently implemented the Catchment Land Surface Model for Sri Lanka in collaboration with FECT.

Neil Fernando :: Agricultural and Environmental Economics

Neil obtained his B.S in Agricultural Economics from the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D from the University of Aberdeen, UK. After serving at the Coconut Research Institute as an Economist, he moved to the UNDP regional centre as an analyst. Neil has collaborated with FECT through the AIACC project on climate change in the plantation sector.

Alumni

Heli Bulathsinhala :: Junior Research Engineer

Heli holds a B.Sc degree in 2nd (Upper) Class in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa. He joined the projects in 2001 and collected climate data, carried out data analysis, quality control, climate impacts assessments and hydro-meteorological work. He worked on both the water resources and climate change components of our work. While engaged in the project, Heli undertook and completed an M.Sc candidate in Water Resources at the University of Moratuwa on climate change.

Kusalika Ariyarathna :: Junior Research Engineer

Kusalika holds a B.Sc (Eng.) degree in the First Class from the University of Peradeniya. She was attached to the project from 2003. She collected climate, maritime and plantation data, carries out data analysis and quality control and climate impacts assessments. She completed her M.Sc in Oceanography while concurrently being attached to the project and now is a Fulbright scholar reading for a Ph.D at Texas A&M University.

Chanaka Wickremasinghe :: Data Entry Operator

Chanaka completed his General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) Education. and has training in desktop publishing. He undertook data acquisition, entry, scanning and checking for a year ending February 2003.

Irugal Bandara :: Junior Research Scientist

Irugal Bandara obtained a B.Sc in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Peradeniya in 1999. Thereafter, he followed a year-long post-graduate diploma course at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Deharadun, India. His research covered the use of remotely sensed data to develop alternative approaches to rainfall-runoff modelling in catchments with sparse hydrological data. Bandara assisted with the project on Tea and Coconut Plantations.

Siraj Razik :: IT Engineer

Siraj obtained a BIT from Curtin University of Technology of Australia. He works with all project staff to construct and update the website for all projects. He supports C and C++, graphics With GIMP/InkScape and GUI programming with QT/KDE , GTK+ and Xlib. Also undertakes system administration and maintenance.

Manjula Siriwardhana :: Junior Research Engineer

Manjula Siriwardhana obtained a B.Sc. in Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka in December 2003 with honors. She is researching under the project ‘Assessment of Impact of and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Plantation sector in Sri Lanka’. She is working under ‘Mahaweli River Basin Project’ from January 2005.

Upamala Tennakoon :: GIS Operator

Upamala has been trained in GIS work through the Environment and Development project in Ordnance Survey, UK in Resource Survey and Mapping, Cartography and GIS. She counts ten years of experience in drafting, cartography, architectural work, mapping and GIS work. Upamala provides GIS, graphics and presentation support for the project work. She is developing an Atlas of Climatology for Sri Lanka and an Information System for the Mahaweli Project.

Amila Karunaratne :: Web Master

Amila followed the BIT course while maintaining FECT websites from 2007 to 2008. He also undertook system administration and maintenance.

Amal Thillakarathne :: Data Entry Operator

Amal performed data entry tasks from October 2006 till March 2007 before entering the University of Peradeniya to read for a degree in the Physical Sciences.

Affiliates

Prof. P. Wickramagamage

Prof. Wickramagamage obtained his B.A in Geography at the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D in Physical Geology from the University of London. He has been a Senior Lecturer in Geography before being promoted. His areas of research include GIS, soils, hydrology and climate.

Dr. M.C.M. Iqbal

Dr. Iqbal obtained his B.S in Agriculture from the University of Peradeniya and his Ph.D in Germany. He has been a Research Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Fundamental Sciences since 2000.

Prof. C.M. Madduma Bandara

Chairman,Natural Resources Management Services,
Senior Professor of Geography, University of Peradeniya,

Fellow of the Royal Society of Geographers, Adviser to the Goverrnment of Sri Lanka on the Mahaweli Authority. Authour of numerous works related to climate, water and agriculture. B.A from University of Peradeniya, Ph.D from Cambridge University. Read More...

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