Nimal Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan-born academic and engineer based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He is a professor of

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

in Burnaby, Canada.

Education

After a year in a school in his village near Attanagalla, he came to Olcott College and after a year entered Ananda College in grade three. Four generations of his family studied at Ananda College. He gained admission to the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univ ...

in 1973 from where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1977. He received a scholarship to study at Asian Institute of Technology in 1979, from which he received a master's degree in 1981 and a

Doctor of Engineering The Doctor of Engineering (DEng or EngD) or Doctor of Engineering Sciences is a research doctorate in engineering and applied science. An EngD is a terminal degree similar to a PhD in engineering but applicable more in industry rather than in ac ...

in 1983. He was a recipient of Thai King's Scholarship for doctoral studies. Asian Institute of Technology honored him as the Notable Alumni Speaker of the May 2017 graduation.

Career

He was the Vice-President (Research and International) of

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

from September 2015 to October 2016. He was a department head and civil engineering professor of

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

from 1985 to 2000. He served as department head and mechanical engineering professor of

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. He became the Director of ICICS at UBC in 2007 and served until 2009. He was Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Simon Fraser University from 2009 to 2015. He is a Fellow of the

Canadian Academy of Engineering The Canadian Academy of Engineering () is a national academy of distinguished professional engineers in fields of engineering, who are elected on the basis of "their distinguished service and contribution to society, to the country and to the profes ...

, the

Engineering Institute of Canada The Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) ( French: l'Institut canadien des ingénieurs; ICI) is a federation of fourteen engineering societies based in Canada, covering a broad range of engineering branches, and with a history going back to 1887. ...

, and the

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) () was founded in 1887 as the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, renamed in 1918 as the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), and re-established in June 1972 as a member society of the EIC under ...

. He has received several prizes and awards for research and professional excellence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajapakshe, Nimal Sri Lankan academic administrators Academic staff of Simon Fraser University Living people Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Year of birth missing (living people)