Prof. N. A. K. P. J. Seneviratne, Senior Professor of the Department of Chemistry, University of Kelaniya, has been appointed as the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Sri Lanka. He assumed duties as the Chairman on the 18th of October 2024, at the UGC premises.
Senior Prof. N. A. K. P. J. Seneviratne has over two decades of experience in academia, both as a lecturer and as an administrator. He currently performs duties as the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, and was the former Chairman of the Research Council, University of Kelaniya. He also worked as the Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya from 2014 to 2017.
He graduated with a BSc (Special) degree in Chemistry from the University of Kelaniya in 1990. He obtained a PhD in Chemistry from Wayne State University, Detroit, United States of America in 1997. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of British Columbia, Canada in 1998/1999. He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship from University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2010. Furthermore, he was offered a Fulbright Fellowship from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States of America. Moreover, he was awarded the SUSRED Award 2018 in 2019.
Quality improvement of coconut oil, antioxidant properties of coconut oil and other edible oils, investigation of the potential of unconventional edible oils as sources of essential fatty acids, evaluating the effect of fatty acid chain length on fatty acid-mediated absorption of small molecules, evaluating the in vitro and in vivo effect of antioxidants on oxidative stress-induced macromolecular damage to assess the potential as food preservatives are some of his key research interests.
