Janaka de Silva

Professor H. Janaka de Silva is a Sri Lankan academic and physician. He is Chair and Senior Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya.^[1][2] He is also Director, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo^[3] and Chairman, National Research Council of Sri Lanka^[4]

Education

Janaka de Silva was educated at the prestigious Royal College, Colombo. He qualified from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in 1977 with MBBS, and captained the University Rugby team. In 1986 he obtained a MD from the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, winning the Stokes Medal for best candidate. He was a graduate student at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and completed his DPhil in 1990, funded by a Wingate Scholarship,^[5] Wellcome Trust Fellowship and an Overseas Research Student award. He passed MRCP (UK) in 1989, and had his higher specialist clinical training at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

Educational and Professional activities

De Silva was appointed Professor of Medicine, University of Kelaniya in 1996, Dean of Medicine (1997-2006), and was member,University Grants Commission (2008-2011). He and colleagues set up the first formal training programme for gastroenterologists in Sri Lanka at the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo. At the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine he was Chairman, Specialty Board in Gastroenterology (2009-2014), Board of Study in Medicine (2001-2003), and Board of Management (2013-2014).^[6]

De Silva is Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians London, Ceylon College of Physicians which he served as President in 2004, and the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka. He was President, Gastroenterological and Digestive Endoscopy Society of Sri Lanka, and Member, Council of the Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology, Sri Lanka Medical Council, Board of the National Science Foundation, and National Research Council.

Together with Kemal Deen and other colleagues he set up a liver transplant service in Sri Lanka.^[7]

Research

De Silva has published widely (h-index 32, i10-index 80). He was Joint Editor, Ceylon Medical Journal from 1999-2014,^[8] is Editor, Online Appendix of Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine, a Deputy Editor, PLoS NTD, and a member of editorial boards of several medical journals.

De Silva is a Senior Advisor to the South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration, ^[9] and a member, Asia Pacific regional working parties on portal hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease. He was member and subsequently Chairman, International Scientific Advisory Board, Wellcome Trust Mahidol University Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Programme, WHO temporary advisor, and team leader of the WHO funded project to estimate the global burden of snakebite. ^[10]

Honours

De Silva was awarded Honorary fellowships by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal College of Physicians of Thailand, and College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka. He has delivered several orations and received Presidential awards for research. He received The Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award for Academic Leadership and Accomplishment, The Vice Chancellors and Directors Excellence Award for the Most Outstanding Researcher in Medical and Allied Sciences - a lifetime award, and the highest national titular honor for science - Vidyajyothi.^[11]

References