M. J. S. Wijeyaratne is a Sri Lankan academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor of University of Kelaniya and Professor of Zoology.
Educated at Royal College Colombo, Prof. Wijeyaratne gained a BSc in Zoology from the University of Kelaniya and gained a MSc from the University of Michigan and return to the University of Kelaniya to complete his PhD.
Joining the University of Kelaniya as a lecturer he served as Head of the Department of Zoology and thereafter Dean of the Faculty of Science and Director of the Staff Development Unit of the University of Kelaniya. He was also the Director of the Local Technical Secretariat of the World Bank funded Improvement of Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) project of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education at the University of Kelaniya. From 2005 to 2008 he served as Vice-Chancellor.
He was also a Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors. A fulbright scholar, he is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Biology of Sri Lanka.
Currently he is the Senior Professor and Chair of Zoology in the Department of Zoology and Environmental Management and Chairman of the Research Council of the University of Kelaniya. He is also the Chairman of the National Science and Technology Commission of Sri Lanka.
He had served as a member of the Boards of Governors of many National Institutions in Sri Lanka. These include the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency, National Institute of Fisheries and Nautical Engineering, Arthur C Clarke Institute of Modern Technology, National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Standards Institution and Industrial Technology Institute. Currently he is a member of the Governing Board of the National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Council member of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka, Chairman of the Research Advisory Board of the National Science Foundation and the Chairman of the Board of Study of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing.
He had also been the Chairman of the Oceanography and Marine Sciences Committee of the National Science Foundation and member of its several committees including Working Committee on Biological Sciences. Currently, he is a member of its Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Education Committee and the Policy Research Committee of the National Science Foundation.
He is the Founder President of Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Founder President of the Alumni Association of the Faculty of Science of the University of Kelaniya. He had also been the General President of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Biology of Sri Lanka. Further, he has also served as the General Secretary of the National Academy of Science, Sri Lanka.
He has been involved in quality assurance activities of the higher education system of Sri Lanka since 2002. As the Deputy Director of the World Bank funded HETC project, he was a key figure in developing the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework. He is a well experienced quality assurance reviewer in higher education and has carried out 19 quality assurance reviews in Sri Lankan and Bangladesh Universities. He has also participated as a resource person in 54 quality assurance training workshops.
He has carried out a large amount of research on Fish Biology, Fisheries Management, Aquatic Biology and Aquatic Resources Management. He has published 93 research papers in peer reviewed indexed journals and 12 text books. He has made 89 presentations in national and international conferences including 06 Keynote addresses and 02 Convocation Addresses.
He is the recipient of the Fellowship on Conservation and Sustainable Development awarded by the University of Michigan, USA. In 1990, he was awarded the Third World Academy of Sciences Prize for the best young scientist in Biology in Sri Lanka. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Award for the Most Outstanding Senior Researcher in Biology by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors of Sri Lanka. He has also won Presidential Awards for Research publications in several years.
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