Janaka de Silva FRCP FNASSL is a Sri Lankan physician and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the

University of Kelaniya The University of Kelaniya (UoK; , ) is a public university in Sri Lanka. Just outside the municipal limits of Colombo, in the city of Kelaniya, the university has two major institutions and seven faculties. History The University of Kelaniy ...

. Janaka de Silva was educated at

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

and holds degrees from the universities of Colombo and Oxford ( Pembroke College). He had his higher specialist clinical training at the John Radcliffe Hospital. De Silva was Professor and Chair of Medicine at the

from 1996-2022. In 1997 he succeeded

Carlo Fonseka Carlo Fonseka ( ''Kālō Fonsēkā''; 4 March 1933 – 2 September 2019) was a Sri Lankan physician, academic and political activist. He was a former dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya and a former president of the Sri Lan ...

as Dean of Medicine, a post he held for nine years. He was also a member of the University Grants Commission from 2008-2011, and Director of the

Postgraduate Institute of Medicine The Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) of the University of Colombo is the graduate school that provides specialist training and board certification of medical doctors in Sri Lanka. The only type of its kind, it is similar to the prestigiou ...

(PGIM),

University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...

from 2014-2020. Before becoming its Director he chaired a number of boards in the PGIM where he and colleagues established the first formal training programme for gastroenterologists in Sri Lanka. Together with

Kemal Deen Professor Kemal Deen is a Sri Lankan academic surgeon, and a consultant in GastroIntestinal Surgery. He is the Senior Professor of Surgery at the University of Kelaniya Medical School, Sri Lanka. He is a founder professor of the Department of S ...

and a few others he pioneered setting up of the liver transplant service at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital. De Silva’s most influential contributions to research stemmed from his abiding interest in health problems prevalent in Sri Lanka. He was Chairman of the National Research Council from 2013-2019. He has held several editorial appointments and served on committees in health and research organizations including the

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

and the UK's

National Institute for Health and Care Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "impr ...

(NIHR). tp://ftp.ictp.trieste.it/r/ravalico/WORLD/04.%20Medical%20&%20Health%20Science%20%28including%20Neurosciences%29/DeSilva_HJ.pdf/ref> He was President of the Ceylon College of Physicians in 2004, twenty years after his father, P. T. de Silva. In addition to several awards and fellowships from academic and professional bodies, de Silva was conferred an honorary

DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

by his university, and the national titular honour ''Vidya Jyothi'' - Sri Lanka's highest honor for science.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Silva, Janaka Sri Lankan academics Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of the University of Colombo Living people Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Academic staff of the University of Kelaniya Vidya Jyothi Sinhalese people Sri Lankan medical doctors Year of birth missing (living people)