Dr. Upeka Premarathne of University of Moratuwa

Biography:

Upeka Premaratne received his Bachelors's Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Moratuwa in 2005, his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Western Ontario in 2009 and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 2015. He is currently serving as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa. His research interests include networked control systems, nonlinear systems theory, teletraffic engineering, and bioinformatics. He will be discussing the holistic approach needed in bioinformatics in terms of fundamental sciences under the topic "Genetics: Where the Sciences Meet".

Dr. Pradeepa Bandaranayake of University of Peradeniya

Biography:

Pradeepa Bandaranayake is currently serving as the Director of Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, and a Senior Lecturer attached to the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. She has four postgraduate degrees; PhD from the University of California Davis with Designated Emphasis and Biotechnology, MSc in Horticulture and Agronomy from the University of California Davis and an MSc in Biotechnology and an MPhil Degree in Crop Science from the University of Peradeniya.

Winning the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship from the Government of the USA was the turning point in her life. As a Fulbright Fellow, she joined the University of California, Davis and followed two degrees in parallel, MSc and a PhD. During her graduate studies, she secured several prestigious fellowships and awards offered to outstanding students and researchers including, University of California- Davis Plant Science Graduate Student Researcher Fellowship, Monsanto Scholarship, John and Terry Kubota Scholarship for Plant Sciences for two consecutive years, UC Davis Graduate Fellowship, Jastro-Shields Research Award for three consecutive years, Margosa Foundation Fellowship and IAPB Fellowship. She still has collaborative projects with UC Davis and visits every year to pursue collaborative work. Currently, Pradeepa conducts her research in molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics, leading several foreign and locally funded projects. She has co-authored over 15 SCI journal publications, over 10 local journal publications, 5 book chapters, over 40 abstracts, and extended abstracts and many conference presentations. Currently, she supervises nine PhD students and seven MPhil students. She serves on several national-level committees in biotechnology and related areas. She won the Presidential Awards for Scientific Publications for the year 2010, 2012, 2103 and 2105 and the NRC Merit Award for 2011. She has recently secured several other prestigious fellowships and awards including the Cochran Fellowship from the US Department of Agriculture, Endeavour Research Fellowship from the Australian Government, Annual Research Excellence Award Faculty of Agriculture University of Peradeniya, the Early Career Fellowship from the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, an UN organization and the SL-CARP awards for Excellence in Agriculture Research 2019.