Professor Piyal Ekanayake: A Lifetime of Academic Excellence and Leadership

Professor Piyal Ekanayake, born on March 28, 1964, in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka, member of SDTI Campus advisory committee has made significant contributions to higher education throughout his career. In 1986, he took on the mantle of an academic career as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Ruhuna after obtaining a Bachelor’s Honors degree in Mathematics from the University of Kelaniya.

In 1988, Professor Ekanayake left for Japan to undertake an MSc and subsequently, following the completion of his PhD there, returned to Sri Lanka as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ruhuna. Later, he became Head of the Mathematics Department.

In 1997, he was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the Northwestern Campus of Rajarata University, which later evolved into Wayamba University. By providing visionary leadership, he built up the university firmly on the pillars of such growth that laid the cornerstone for the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine and the introduction of new engineering and technology faculties.

He became the 5th Vice-Chancellor of Wayamba University in 2017, piloting the university to international recognition. During his vice-chancellorship, the university climbed to the 4,805th position at the global level and 10th among Sri Lankan universities.

His consummate leadership led him to merit the commonwealth fellowship scholarship for research at the University of Oxford in 2001. Even in 2018, he was honored with the “Wayamba True Son” award and has received three outstanding continuous long-service awards for his contributions to the university system in Sri Lanka. He also received merit awards for excellence in research in 2021 and again in 2022.

Now retired, Professor Ekanayake continues his legacy in the higher educational landscape of Sri Lanka as a researcher in collaboration with many universities.