Chandre Dharma-wardana is a Sri Lankan-born academic and scientist. A former President of Vidyodaya Campus (now the University of Sri Jayewardenepura), he is currently a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Université de Montréal.
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Educated at Ananda College and at Royal College, Colombo he earned a BSc (Hon.) from the University of Ceylon in 1961.[1]
Joining the university as a senior lecturer, he was later appointed Professor of Chemistry.[2] From 1974 to 1975 he was appointed as President of Vidyodaya Campus. During this period he also held associate appointments with the Université de Paris, Orsay via the CECAM institute, associated with the French Atomic Energy Commission and the CNRS.[2] Currently, he is affiliated with the National Research Council of Canada and the Université de Montréal, and works on various topics in the quantum theory and nanotechnology.[3]
Professor Dharma-wardana has worked on a wide variety of scientific topics, where the unifying theme is the application of the quantum theory, usually to many-body problems.[4] His work focused on quantum theory, statistical mechanics and solid state physics. He has also done research into many-body theory and plasma physics, often in collaboration with François Perrot of the French Atomic Energy commission. Thus the construction of the classical-map scheme for quantum systems [5] is a ground-breaking work, leading to the formulation of the classical-map hyper-netted chain method (CHNC). This method has led to a new approach for the evaluation of properties of Fermi liquids. His previous work on the density-functional theory of dense plasmas [6] is now a well-established method in the field. It has led to the development of methods for the first-principles evaluation of the equation of state, and the transport properties of dense plasmas.[7] His contributions to the energy-relaxation of hot electrons in semiconductors and also in plasmas,[8][9] has presented a new direction in the theory of non-equilibrium states of two-temperature charged fluids. His paper elucidating the unusual thermal conductivity of clathrates still attracts many citations.[10] His contributions to surface science (e.g. reconstruction of the sulphur-passivated InP surface), nanotechnology, phonons in semiconductor structures, quasi-periodic systems [11] etc., are well known and are contained in over 200 research publications. Dharma-wardana currently serves as a Principal Research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada, and is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Université de Montréal, so also Whose Who, Canada.[1]
Professor Dharma-wardana has also contributed to development studies[12] in Sri Lanka. He was invited to talk about a web site of place names in a conference organized by the Roryal asiatic Society of Sri Lanka.[13]