Gihan Wikramanayake

Who is Gihan Wikramanayake?

Professor Gihan Nilendra Wikramanayake, FBCS, CITP, SMIEEE, MCS, MNASSL is a Sri Lankan academic. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the University of Colombo School of Computing, formerly Head of the Department of Information Systems Engineering.

Educated at Royal College Colombo, he graduated from the University of Colombo with a BSc in Statistics & Mathematics with First Class Honours in 1984 and went on to gain a MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Wales, College of Cardiff in 1989 and 1996.

In 1984 he joined the Computer Centre of the University of Colombo as a trainee programmer, he moved to the Department of Statistics and Computer Science as a researcher before becoming an Assistant Lecturer. In 1990 be became a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in 1996. Moving to the new Department of Computer Science in 2000 he became its acting Head in 2002.

In 2002 he became the Head, Department of Information Systems Engineering, UCSC and Deputy Director, UCSC in 2004. From 2007 to 2008 he was the acting Head, Department of Communication and Media Technologies. He is also a visiting scholar of University of New Mexico, Stockholm University and Umeå University. In 2010 he became the Director of the UCSC and a Professor of Computer Science.