FAOBMB will welcome a new Chair of the Fellowships Committee from 1 January 2024. Professor Rasika Perera of Sri Lanka will take over from Professor Paul Gleeson of Australia, who will have completed six years as FAOBMB Fellowships Chair at the end of this year. FAOBMB recognises the excellent service that Paul has carried out during his term of office in this very important role for FAOBMB.
Rasika Perera is a Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and the current Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at that University. He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree in 1998 and PhD in Biochemistry in 2009, from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. After doing his internship in medicine, he joined the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura in the year 2001 as a probationary lecturer. He was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in 2009 and to the post of Professor in Clinical Biochemistry in 2017.
He was elected to the post of Dean, Faculty of Graduate studies, the postgraduate Faculty of University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 2023.
Rasika Perera’s initial research activities were mainly in the fields of clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition at the Department of Biochemistry of University of Sri Jayewardenepura. His areas of interest have been on cardiac markers and nutritional assessment. With his proposal for the setting up of the Kidney Research Centre at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura being accepted and him being appointed to the post of Director of the Centre, his new research interests now include the field of kidney disease which is a timely area of research considering the emergence of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) in Sri Lanka.
He is the founder president of the College of Biochemists of Sri Lanka and served a period of four years as the president of CBSL from 2013-2017. He will take up the position of Chair of the Fellowships Committee of FAOBMB from 1 January 2024.