Dr. Kalhari Goonewardene is a Research Scientist at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD). She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. She graduated with BVSc from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the University of Peradeniya in 2010, and then a PhD at the Department of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. Her research interests are in food animal health. During her PhD, she developed an alternative to antibiotics for the poultry industry. She won the inaugural BioOne Ambassador Award in 2018. In 2019, she became a foreign animal disease (FAD) researcher in virology at the CFIA-NCFAD, focusing mainly on African swine fever (ASF) and classical swine fever (CSF) viruses in swine. Her research projects are aimed at understanding the viral pathogenesis, disease progression and transmission, characterisation of novel viral strains, vaccines and the development of effective surveillance strategies for the early detection of these deadly viral pathogens.
Dr. Chungwon J. Chung currently works as the Research Leader and Unit Head at the Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, USDA. He is also an Adjoint faculty at Washington State University. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Kyungpook National University in 1991, his Master's degree in Veterinary Biochemistry/Toxicology at Kyungpook National University in 1993, his PhD in Veterinary Science/Immunology/Virology at Washington State University in 2003, and his Postdoc in Virology and Immunology at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. He worked as a Research Microbiologist at Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (2016-2020), and then as the Section Head at Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, APHIS, USDA (2020-2023). His research interests mainly include veterinary immunology, diagnostics, virology, serology, T-lymphocytes, immunoassays, and veterinary infectious diseases.
