EXPERT SPEAKERS & COMMITTEE
DR. GUNATHILAKA SAMANTHA
(Conference Chair)
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
University of Ruhuna
Sri Lanka
Dr. Samantha Gunathilaka is currently attached to the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. He has graduated in 1999 from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka with B.Sc (Hons.) in Industrial Management. He has completed his Master of Business Administration (Management of Technology) degree from School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 2004. He obtained his PhD in Management from the School of Business and Economics, University of Brunei, Brunei in 2018.
He has more than 19 years of academic experience and made a significant contribution to Sri Lanka in the field of industrial management subject teaching to the University students and the related research work. His teaching and research interests include entrepreneurship, small business development, technology management, project management and industrial management. He has held many administrative positions in the University including head of the department for many years.
DR. REGIDOR T. CARALE
Collage of Art & Education
St. Paul University
Philippines
Dr. Regidor T. Carale is attached to the Faculty of College of Arts and Education, St. Paul University Dumaguete, Dumaguete City, Philippines. He has 18 years of teaching experience covering Research, Statistics, Music and Arts, and Technical Vocational Education related subjects. He was the former Senior High School Coordinator who pioneered the implementation of the K-12 curriculum in the university as the administrator.
PROF. DEEPTHI WICKRAMASINGHE
Head of Zoology & Environment Sciences Department
University of Colombo
Sri Lanka
Prof. Deepthi Wickramasinghe is currently the Head of the Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has graduated in 1991 from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka with BSc (Hons.) in Environmental Science. In year 1997 she received the MSc in Environmental Science from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She obtained her PhD in Conservation Biology in 2004 from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
She has more than 25 years’ experience in Environmental Science and made a significant contribution to Sri Lanka in the Zoology and Environment Science subjects teaching to the University students and the related research work. Her main research interests are on Biodiversity Conservation, Herpetology, Wetland Ecology, Water and Sanitation, Pollution Management, Disaster Risk Reduction and the Biosecurity and Biosafety.
She is the Co-Director of the Career Guidance Unit of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. In 2019, she won the award for best exploratory project in water from the Waterlex, Switzerland affiliated to UN water. She has won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Research in years 2007, 2012 and 2017. In year 2000 she was the Sri Lankan Nominee for the Commonwealth Academic Scholarship in United Kingdom.
PROF. H.M. SAMAN K. HERATH
Head of Export Agriculture Department
University of Uva Wellassa
Sri Lanka
Prof. H.M. Saman K. Herath is currently the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture, Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka. He has graduated in 2003 from the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with Second Class Upper Division for BSc in Agricultural Sciences (Plantation Agriculture). In year 2006 he received the MSc in Physical Land Resources (Soil Science) with a distinction from the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University in Belgium. He obtained his PhD (Soil Science) (Exceptional PhD Thesis) in 2012 from the New Zealand Biochar Research Centre, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, New Zealand.
He has more than 15 years’ experience in Soil Science and made a significant contribution to Sri Lanka in the field of Agriculture, particularly in Soil Science subject teaching to the University students and the related research work. His main research interests are on Soil Fertility Management, Soil Carbon Dynamics and Global Warming. He is serving as the Chairman of the Research Committee of Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka from 01 August 2017 to up to now. He is the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Agriculture and Value Addition (JAVA), Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture, Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka.
ASSOC. PROF. S.L. WELSH
School of Humanities, Religion & Philosophy
York St John University
United Kingdom
Assoc. Prof. Sarah Lawson Welsh is an Associate Professor and Reader in English and Postcolonial Literatures, School of Humanities, Religion & Philosophy of York St John University, United Kingdom. Assoc. Prof. Sarah Lawson Welsh gained a first-class degree in English & American Literature from the University of Kent in 1987. She obtained her Ph.D. in Caribbean Studies (Language and Literature of the Anglophone Caribbean) from the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom in 1991. Since then she has taught at the Universities of Hull, Warwick, Northampton and York St John (twice: 1992-97 and 2005 to the present)
Her main research interests are in Caribbean Food Studies and in contemporary postcolonial writing and cultures, especially Caribbean, Black British and women’s writing. She has 28 years of teaching experience as an academic in the fields of Humanities, Religion & Philosophy including Postcolonial Literatures.
PROF. DEJO OLOWU
Department of Law
North-West University (Mafikeng Campus)
South Africa
Prof. Dejo Olowu is a Professor of Law & Pioneer Dean of the School of Law, American University of Nigeria, Adamawa State, Nigeria. His teaching and research interests are in Public International Law, Comparative Constitutionalism, International Human Rights Law, Legal Theory, Development and Social Justice.
He is a Legal practitioner since Dec 1992. He has more than 22 years of teaching experience as an academic. He functioned as a full Professor of Law since Jan 2009. In December 2018, Professor Dejo Olowu joined the North-West University (Mafikeng Campus) in South Africa as a Research Professor of Law.
