Dr. Locana SLAAS General President

THE installation of Dr. K. Locana Gunaratna as the General President of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) held on January 19 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo. Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardena was the chief guest.

Gunaratna trained as an Architect at the AA School of Architecture in London, later as a Fulbright scholar, who obtained a Master's degree in City Planning from Harvard University was a Research Fellow for a year in a special programme of urban studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Colombo University conferred on him a doctorate for his thesis on urban related research. His writings display a keen sensitivity to the history of the built environment and its planned development.

They have significantly influenced the Planning in this country. Some of these have focused on the regional development, the role of small towns in rural development, and the need for a national urban policy.

Gunaratna was elected Education Committee Chairman of the Architects' Regional Council for Asia (ARCASIA).

He has been President of the institutes governing Architecture and also Urban Planning in Sri Lanka. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka.