Advisors
Prof. Bradfield Lyon
Bradfield Lyon received his PhD in meteorology from MIT and joined the IRI in 1999. His research activities are focused on observational and modeling diagnostic studies of climate variability ranging from seasonal to inter-annual variability to near term climate change. He is particularly interested in investigating causal mechanisms, regional manifestations, prediction, and impacts of drought.
Prof. Noel Aloysius
Noel Aloysius is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical, Biological & Chemical Engineering. His research interests include: Hydroclimatology with emphasis on modeling at watershed to regional scale; water and food security assessment; coupled human-natural systems; environmental change; land and water management in agriculture and remote-sensing for natural resource management
Nalin Wickramanayaka :: Environmental Engineering and Coastal Zone Management
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 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.
Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe – IT Consultant
Vidhura Ralapanawe is a 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.
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 (Provention), master’s in development Practice Project (MacArthur), AgMIP project (DfID) and the PEER projects on Water and Hazards (National Academy of Sciences, USAID).
Dr. Lareef Zubair – Principal Scientist /Climate and Adaptation Scientist and Technologist
Dr. Lareef Zubair, the Principal Scientist / Engineer of DS, works in the areas of climate, environment, adaptation and technological advancement for the tropics for the last two decades. He undertakes research on climate systems, adaptation approaches and uses these for generating practical solutions in tropical venues (Sri Lanka, Botswana, Maldives and Comoros). His work is undertaken through projects in partnership with decision-makers and other researchers and educators.
Previously, He was a Postdoctoral Associate in Mathematics and Engineering at Yale University, and in Climate Monitoring and Applications at the University Consortium for Atmospheric Science. He has also been 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 worked as a Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and is attached to the Columbia University Water Center. His undergraduate education was at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and the graduate work was at Yale University, U.S.A.