Vidya Jyothi Professor Vajira H.W. Dissanayake

Professor Vajira H. W. Dissanayake MBBS (Colombo), PhD (Nottingham), FNASSL, FIAHSI is the Chair and Senior Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Genetics, and Biomedical Informatics and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is a pioneer in Genetics, Genomics, Biomedical Informatics and Bioethics in Sri Lanka. He is a leading researcher in these fields in Sri Lanka. He has supervised 15 PhD students and 60 MSc students. He together with his students and colleagues have been the recipient of more than 40 awards for research and innovation at university, national and international levels. In recognition of his scientific achievements he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in 2013, a fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics in 2020, and conferred the Sri Lankan national titular honour of vidya jyothi in 2019.

Prof. Dissanayake has held many leadership positions in the field of medicine. He was the President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association in 2012 and the President of the Commonwealth Medical Association from 2016 to 2019. The other leadership positions held by Prof. Dissanayake include Honorary Secretary, Sri Lanka Medical Association (2000 and 2005); Founder Secretary, Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (1998-2000); President, Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (2009-2019); President, Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (2019-2020); Vice President (Asia Pacific), International Medical Informatics Association (2019-2020); Board Member, Steering Committee, Forum for Ethical Review Committees in Asia and the Western Pacific (since 2010); Executive Board Member, Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative (since June 2016); Chairperson, Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health (since 2018); and Chairperson, Commonwealth Health Professions and Partners Alliance (since 2021). He is the current President of the Sri Lanka Medical Council.