Dr. Nalin Wijayawardene joined the College of Biological Resource and Food Engineering, Qujing Normal University, China in 2019 as a Professor in Mycology. Dr. Nalin completed his B.Sc. special degree in Biodiversity Conservation at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. Dr. Nalin obtained his Ph.D. in Mycology from Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Kevin D. Hyde. His Ph.D. topic was, ‘Taxonomy and phylogeny of dematiaceous coelomycetes and nomenclature of asexual fungi’. Dr. Nalin has published more than 130 SCI publications and his H’ index is currently 37. Dr. Nalin has been nominated as one of the best 2% scientists in the world in 2022 and 2023. He is serving as an editor of the top two journals of mycology, i.e. Fungal Diversity, and Mycosphere. Besides, he is also serving as an editor of Current Research of Environmental Applied Mycology, Studies in Fungi and MycoKeys. He has been a member of the International Commission of Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF) since 2022. Dr. Nalin’s current research interests are the taxonomy and phylogeny of asexual fungi, fresh water and marine fungi, and fungi from extreme environments.
Susantha Udagedara is a Director with a particular interest
in seagrasses, climate change adaptation, and species based ecological studies at
the Blue Resources Trust, Sri Lanka. He also has been selected as a Commission
member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Seagrass Specialist Group.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Environment Conservation Management at the
University of Kelaniya in 2010, followed by a Master’s degree in Environment
Management at the University of Colombo in 2016.
Prabath K. Jayasinghe is the Principal Scientist at the National
Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Sri Lanka. He
received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
in 1997, his M.Sc. in Aquatic Biology from the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM),
Malaysia in 2005 and his M.Sc. in Water and Coastal Management from the University
of Algarve, Portugal in 2007, and earned his Ph.D. in Marine and Coastal
Management from the University of Cadiz, Spain in 2015. He is also a Full
Member of the Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
(SLAFAR), the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS), and the Network of Aquaculture and
Fisheries Professionals – World Fish Centre, Malaysia, a Member of the Young
Scientists Forum (YSF) of the National Science and Technology Commission of the
Ministry of Science and Technology, Sri Lanka, the American Society of
Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), and the Society for Conservation Biology,
Washington D.C (SCB), and a Life member of Sri Lanka Association for
Advancement of Science (SLAAS)- Section D. His main research interests include
Fisheries Management, Fish and Fisheries Biology, Trophic Interactions in Marine
Ecosystems, Marine Environmental Evaluation and Assessments, Coral reefs.
Sudheera S. Gunasekara is a Scientist at the National
Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Sri Lanka. He is also
a life member of the Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (SLAFAR).
He graduated from the University of Ruhiuna Sri Lanka with a Bachelor’s degree
in Hydrology, and pursued EMJMD Water and Coastal Management (WACOMA) Master’s program
at the University of Bologna, Italy, in 2021. Additionally, he completed a Master’s
degree in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) from the University of
Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2018. He also completed a nine-month post-graduate
diploma course in Remote Sensing and GIS at the Centre for Space Science and
Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific in India. His main research
interests include Potential fishing ground forecasting; Fisheries Oceanography;
Fisheries acoustics and stock abundance estimation; Remote sensing and GIS
applications in coastal and marine areas.
Nattawut Boonyuen is a Researcher of the Plant Microbe
Interaction Research Team, Integrative Crop Biotechnology and Management
Research Group, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
(BIOTEC), with his research focuses on the systematics, evolution, biodiversity,
and polyphasic method of environmental fungi, micro-fungi, & aquatic fungi.
He earned his Ph.D. in Tropical Agriculture from Kasetsart University. His publications
delve into the evolutionary connections among various fungal species that were
previously unknown, the richness of fungal diversity, newly discovered fungi
capable of producing compounds, preliminary utilization and biotechnological
screening of fungi, composite materials based on mycelium, and mycological
degradation.
Dr. Thushara C.
Bamunuarachchige is a Senior Researcher at the Bioprocess Technology
Department, Faculty of Technology, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. In 2003,
he got his Doctorate at the University of Peradeniya. He is a member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research interests
include microbial biotechnology: biopesticides, biofertilizers, amylases and
lacases, drought tolerance in traditional Sri Lankan rice Varieties, molecular
phylogeny of sea cucumbers, and microbiomes of mammals.
Kahandawa G. S. U. Ariyawansa is a Senior Lecturer – Grade II
at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Colombo. He received his BSc.
(Special Degree in Botany) and MSc. in Molecular Life Sciences from the University
of Colombo in 2003 and 2007, respectively, and earned his Ph.D. in Fungal
Genetics from Massey University in 2016. He is also a life member and joint secretary
of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka. His main research interests include Fungal
endophytes; Plant-fungal interactions; Plant disease resistance; Fungal
endophytes for disease control; and Commercial applications of fungal
endophytes.
