Senior Professor Kapila Seneviratne has been appointed as the new Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The letter of appointment was handed over to the professor at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday (October 18) by President’s Secretary Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake.
Senior Professor K. L. Wasantha Kumara has been appointed as the new Vice Chairman of the UGC. Other members appointed to the Commission include Senior Professors Rahula Athalage, O. G. Dayaratne, Subramaniam Raviraj and President’s Counsel C. K. W. Unamboowa.
Senior Prof. Seneviratne graduated with a BSc (Special) Degree in Chemistry from Kelaniya University in 1990. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wayne State University, Detroit, USA, and did his postdoctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1998-1999. He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship from the University of Leeds, UK in 2010 and a Fulbright Fellow in the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the USA in 2011.
Prof. Seneviratne is a renowned researcher in the field of chemistry and nutrition of edible oils. He has served as the Science Faculty Dean from 2014 to 2017. He is also the Chairman of the Research Council and the Chairman of the Ethics Review Committee of the University.
