M. J. S. Wijeyaratne is a Sri Lankan academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor of University of Kelaniya and Professor of Zoology. ACCIMT Professor M. J. S. Wijeyaratne
Educated at Royal College Colombo,Dr. A. M. Mubarak, from Sultanwatta to Cambridge 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.
Research publications
De Silva, S.S. & M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1977) Studies on the young grey mullet Mugil cephalus L. ll - Food and Feeding. Aquaculture, 12: 157 – 168.. De Silva, S.S., Kortmulder, K. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1977) A comparative study of the food and feeding habits of Puntius bimaculatus and P. titteya. Netherland Journal of Zoology, 27: 253 - 263. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1981) stocking rate estimates of Tilapia mossambica fingerlings for some inland reservoirs of Sri Lanka. Internationale Revue gesamten Hidrobiologia, 66: 327 - 333. Amarasinghe, U.S., H.H. Costa and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1983). Limnology and fish production potential of major freshwater reservoirs in Anuradhapura District. Journal of Inland Fisheries, 2: 14 - 29 Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1984). Problems associated with quantification of stocking. In. Report of the Second Session of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Commission Working Party on Inland Fisheries. FAO Fisheries Report, 312: 53 - 56. Edirisinghe, E.A.D.N.D. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne, (1986). Food resource partitioning among the fishes co-existing in brush parks, an artificial habitat in a lagoon in Sri Lanka. Journal of Inland fisheries, 3: 115 - 125. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and Costa, H.H. (1986) Application of "yield per recruit" and "surplus yield" models to the grey mullet fishery in Negombo lagoon, Sri Lanka, Journal of Inland Fisheries, 3: 3 - 14. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1986) Exploitation of fin fish resources of lagoons and estuaries in Sri Lanka. In. (ed.) Weerasinghe S.G.M. Silver Jubilee Commemorative Volume of the University of Kelaniya, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka 185 - 189. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1987) On the biology of an estuarine population of grey mullet Mugil cephalus L. in Negombo lagoon Sri Lanka. Cybium, 10(4): 351 - 363. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H.Costa (1987) Fishery, seasonal abundance and mortality of grey mullets (Pisces - Mugilidae) in Negombo lagoon, Sri Lanka. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 3: 115 - 118. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1987) The food, feeding and reproduction in an estuarine population of green back mullet, Liza tade (Forskal) in the Negombo lagoon, Sri Lanka. Ophelia, 27(3): 171 - 180. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H Costa (1987) The biology of grey mullets in a tropical lagoon in Sri Lanka. I - Age and Growth. Mahasagar, 20(3): 163 - 170. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1987) On the management of fin fish fishery of Negombo lagoon. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 34(1): 41 - 47. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1987) The food, feeding and reproduction of Borneo mullet, Liza macrolepis in a coastal estuary in Sri Lanka. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 34 (3): 283-291. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and U.S. Amarasinghe, (1987) Estimations of maximum sustainable fish yields and stocking densities of fish fingerlings in freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Arch. Hydrobiol. Beih. 28: 305-308. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1988). The food, fecundity and gonadal maturity of Valamugil cunnesius (Pisces - Mugilidae) in the Negombo lagoon. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 35 (2): 71 - 77. Daniel, D.J., H.H. Costa and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1988) Hydrobiology and fish production potential of major freshwater reservoirs in Hambantota district. Journal of Inland Fisheries, 4: 95-121. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa, (1988). Reproductive strategy and feeding of Dussumier's mullet, Liza dussumieri Valenciennes from a coastal lagoon in Sri Lanka. Journal of Inland Fisheries, 4: 31-41. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and R.S. Gunawardena, (1988) Chemotherapy of ectoparasite Ergasilus ceylonensis on the Asian cichlid Etroplus suratensis. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 4 (2): 97 - 100. Costa, H.H. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1989) Epidemiology of the epizootic ulcerative syndrome occurring for the first time among fish in Sri Lanka. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 5 (1): 48 - 52. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1989) Food intake and food conversion efficiency of the snakehead Ophiocephalus striatus Bloch in a peaty swamp in Sri Lanka. In E.A. Huisman, Z. Zonneveld and A.H.M. Bowmann (eds.) Aquaculture Research in Asia: Management Techniques and Nutrition, Pudoc Wageningen, 261 - 267. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. & Costa, H.H. (1990) Food and feeding of two species of grey mullets Valamugil buchanani (Bleeker) and Liza vaigiensis Quoy and Gaimard inhabiting brackish water environments in Sri Lanka. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 37(3): 211 - 219. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1990). An experimental study on the culture of Channa striata using a population of Puntius vittatus as food In Hirano R. and I. Hanyu (eds.) The second Asian Fisheries Forum. Asian Fisheries Society, Manila, Philippines. 205 - 208. Chandrasoma, J. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1990) Some aspects of the biology of Hyporhampus gaimardi in Uda Walawe reservoir, a man made lake in Sri Lanka. In Hirano, R. and I. Hanyu (eds). The Second Asian Fisheries Forum, Asian Fisheries Society, Manila, Philippines. 569 - 572. Karunasinghe, N. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1991) Population dynamics of trenched sardine Amblygaster sirm (clupeidae) in the western coastal waters of Sri Lanka. Asian Fisheries Science, 4: 329 - 334. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S., (1991). Management of living aquatic resources of Sri Lanka. Proceedings of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science. 47(2): 43-66. Karunasinghe, W.P.N. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1991) Selectivity estimates for Amblygaster sirm (Clupeidae) in the small meshed gill net fishery on the west coast of Sri Lanka. Fisheries Research, 10: 199 - 205. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and H.H. Costa (1992) Resource partitioning of two commercially important cichlid species in three minor perennial reservoirs in the Northwestern province of Sri Lanka. Journal of Aquaculture in the Tropics. 7: 131-180 Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1992) Sustainable exploitation of brackishwater fishery resources of Sri Lanka In K. Tillekeratne, C. Dahanayake, S.P.B. Wickramasooriya and I.V.S. Fernando (eds.) Silver Jubillee Commemorative Volume, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. 41 - 48 Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1993) Conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity in Sri Lanka. Conservation and Sustainable Development, The University of Michigan 1: 61-75. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1993) Biology of harvesting fishery resource in Sri Lanka at the maximum sustainable level, Conservation and Sustainable Development, The University of Michigan 1: 17-24. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1993) Conservation and management of estuarine sea grass and mangrove habitats in Sri Lanka. Conservation and Sustainable Development, The University of Michigan 1: 33-40. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1993) Conservation and management of Senanayake Samudra reservoir ecosystem in Sri Lanka. Case Studies in Conservation and Sustainable Development, The University of Michigan 1: 86-106. Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. and W.M.D.S.K. Perera (1993) Present status of the seine fishery of Negombo lagoon. Vidyodaya Journal of Science, 4 (1 & 2) : Chandrasoma, J. and M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (1994) Impact of stocking of exotic carps in Giritale Tank, a man made lake in Sri Lanka. In L.M. Chou et al., (eds), The Third Asian Fisheries Forum, Asian Fisheries Society, Manila, Philippines. 258 – 261, Wijeyaratne, M.J.S. (1994). Some aspects of the biology of the snakehead, Ophicephalus striatus Bloch in Muthurajawela, a peaty swamp in Sri Lanka. Vidyodaya Journal of Science. 5(1): 175-182.