Professor W.D. N. Dissanayake

MBBS(Colombo), PhD(Neuroscience,Queens’ Medical school), SEDA(UK)

Professor, Head

Department of Physiology,

Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Prof. Dilshani Dissanayake is the current Head of the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo. She is the founder director of the Research Promotion and Facilitation Centre (RPFC) and the neuroscientist in charge of the neuroscience research laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.

Prof. Dissanayake obtained her medical degree (MBBS) from the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo and obtained her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Nottingham, UK. While teaching the functionality of brain to medical, para-medical and post-graduate students, she is developing a pool of committed MPhil and PhD scholars in neuroscience, through her neuroscience research laboratory.

Prof. Dilshani Dissanayake contributes to promote and facilitate a positive research culture in the faculty as the director of the RPFC. She spearheaded the establishment of the first research writing support programme and the first formalized research training course in the country through the RPFC.

Prof. Dissanayake is a recipient of several grants and awards including a grant to establish the neuroscience research laboratory, a co-recipient of a grant to establish physiotherapy research laboratory, principal investigator of research grants from the National Science Foundation and the University of Colombo, Commonwealth fellowship at the clinical neurophysiology unit, Kings College London, UK and presidential awards for research publications.

Prof. Dissanayake is currently leading a multidisciplinary team of researchers in the University of Colombo, on a World Bank funded project to assess the effects of meditation on health.

Her research interests are focused on the sensory processing in the CNS, meditation, schizophrenia and cannabis, diabetic neuropathy and related complications, cognition and falls and animal modeling of sensory processing deficits in CNS. She has also contributed to international studies and publications on mathematical and computer modeling of CNS diseases to minimize the use of animal models.