Prof Jayasekara elected Dean

The Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo elected Prof Rohan W Jayasekara as its Dean.

He is the first academic from a Basic Sciences Department in the Faculty to be elected Dean. Prof. Jayasekara joined the Faculty of Medicine as a lecturer on January 1, 1974. Later, he joined the University of Newcastle, UK in 1977 on a Commonwealth Research Scholarship to read for his PhD in Cytogenetics which he obtained in 1980.

On his return to Sri Lanka he established the first Human Genetics Unit in the country in 1981. He was appointed to the Chair in the Department of Anatomy in 1999 and is at present the Senior Professor of Anatomy.

Prof Jayasekara was made a Fellow of the Galton Institute, London.

He had served as acting Dean, acting Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), member of the Senate, member of the Board of Management of the PGIM and member of the Council for many years.

He has also chaired several National Committees such as 'Genetically Modified (GM) Food in Sri Lanka' for the Health Ministry and the Committee that formulated a Draft National Policy on the 'Biomedical Ethics of the New Genetics and Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Sri Lanka' for the National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC).