Janaka de Silva | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Sri Lankan |
Education | Royal College, Colombo University of Colombo MBBS MD University of Oxford DPhil |
Occupation | Physician |
Title | Vidya Jyothi |
Parent(s) | P. T. De Silva, Kusuma de Silva (née Weerasekera) |
Janaka de Silva FRCP FNASSL is a Sri Lankan physician and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Kelaniya. [1] [2]
Janaka de Silva was educated at Royal College, Colombo and holds degrees from the universities of Colombo and Oxford (Pembroke College). [3] He had his higher specialist clinical training at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
De Silva was Professor and Chair of Medicine at the University of Kelaniya from 1996-2022. In 1997 he succeeded Carlo Fonseka as Dean of Medicine, a post he held for nine years. [4] He was also a member of the University Grants Commission from 2008-2011, and Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), University of Colombo from 2014-2020. [5] Before becoming its Director he chaired a number of boards in the PGIM [6] where he and colleagues established the first formal training programme for gastroenterologists in Sri Lanka. Together with Kemal Deen and a few others he pioneered setting up of the liver transplant service at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital. [7]
De Silva’s most influential contributions to research stemmed from his abiding interest in health problems prevalent in Sri Lanka. [8] He was Chairman of the National Research Council from 2013-2019. [9] He has held several editorial appointments [10] [11] and served on committees in health and research organizations including the WHO, Wellcome Trust and the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
He was President of the Ceylon College of Physicians in 2004, twenty years after his father, P. T. de Silva. [17] In addition to several awards and fellowships from academic and professional bodies, [18] [19] de Silva was conferred an honorary DSc by his university, and the national titular honour Vidya Jyothi - Sri Lanka's highest honor for science. [20] [15]