- Abhaya Induruwa, Prof.Read More...
Prof. Abhaya Induruwa’s entry into the ICT arena commenced in 1973 while he was a student at the Katubedde Campus of the University of Sri Lanka, which is now the University of Moratuwa. He earned his PhD degree at Imperial College in London, UK.
Prof. Abhaya Induruwa is aptly known as the “The Father of Internet in Sri Lanka”. The areas that he has identified, striven for, and implemented have made a significant impact on the Internet scenario in Sri Lanka. Setting up LEARN which originally stood for “Lanka Experimental Academic and Research Network” in the nineties was a key milestone and with the limited resources that he could muster Prof. Abhaya Induruwa established LEARNmail in 1990 – the very first Internet email for academic and research institutions in Sri Lanka. The registration of Sri Lanka’s Country Code Top Level Domain, .LK, was a natural progression of the introduction of LEARNmail. Prof. Gihan Dias of the University of Moratuwa became the technical handle and Abhaya Induruwa was the administrative handle.
Prof. Abhaya Induruwa was a member of the very first Board of the Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC) and continued to serve on CINTEC Boards until 1998.
All the work that Prof. Abhaya Induruwa did with respect to introducing networking and the Internet to Sri Lanka, and all these key milestones that were reached which have impacted on all who use networking and the Internet today in Sri Lanka, culminated in a Lifetime Achievement Award granted by the Internet Society – Prof. Abhaya Induruwa was inducted to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014.
- Gihan Dias, Prof.
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Prof. Gihan Dias was educated at Royal College, Colombo, Lanka, and earned a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and a PhD from the University of California (Davis). He is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the University of Moratuwa. One of the most significant milestones in Prof. Dias’ career was setting up the country code top level domain .lk. He is the CEO and Founder of the .LK Domain Registry (LKNIC) and has been at the fore of the country’s ccTLD management since 1990.
Prof. Gihan Dias was one of the pioneers in setting up and running the Lanka Educational and Research Network (LEARN) and was also the founder and first president of the Lanka Academic Network (LAcNet), a nonprofit, volunteer organization of Sri Lankan students, teachers and professionals. He has also assisted a number of Internet service providers in setting up their own networks.
In 2003 and 2004 Gihan was a founding Program Director of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the apex Government body responsible for the development of ICT in the country. At ICTA he led the program on using ICT in local languages, and worked on the development of Unicode compliant fonts and developed the draft ICT Sinhala standard which was standardized by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) as SLS 1134 : 2004. He is the Chair of SLSI’s Sectoral Committee on ICT. While at ICTA, he organized extensive awareness and capacity building programs on the Unicode standard for font developers and other stakeholders. He also chaired ICTA’s IDN Task Force which worked through a consultative process on agreeing on the two IDN ccTLDs for Sri Lanka, (for Sinhala and Tamil) which were implemented through LKNIC. He is a past president of the Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter. In 2013, Gihan was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for his pioneering work on developing the Internet in Sri Lanka.
- Kavan Ratnatunga, Dr.
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Dr. Kavan Ratnatunga (Dr. Kavan) was educated at Royal College, Colombo and at the University of Colombo from where he received a BSc (First class, honors degree) in Physics, in 1976. He commenced his career in Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, where he completed a M.Sc. degree in Astronomy. He read for a PhD at the Australian National University. Thereafter, Dr. Kavan went back to USA. At the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, in 1984, he first had an email address. From Princeton Dr. Kavan went to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Canada, and then to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA, around 1989.
- Lal Dias, Mr.
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Mr. Lal Dias is a Chartered Information Technology Professional and a Member of the British Computer Society. He was educated in the UK and Australia where he obtained a Computer Science Degree from Manchester University and an MBA from Murdoch University. He has worked for more than 25 years in the Banking Industry.
Mr. Lal Dias has extensive international experience, having worked with the French Bank Societe Generale in Europe, Africa and Asia, prior to returning home to work for Hatton National Bank. He has been instrumental in the setting up of Sri Lanka CERT and presently serves as its Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Lal Dias has been able to use his vast international exposure to forge relationships with other National CERTs and recognized global bodies in the Cyber Security space in order to position Sri Lanka CERT as a truly professional outfit.
- Rohan Samarajiva, Prof.
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Prof. Rohan Samarajiva was Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka in 1998-99. During his tenure, a regulatory environment was created and the foundation for a competitive telecom sector were laid. He has contributed significantly toward telecommunications reforms which have impacted the development of the Internet in Sri Lanka. During the period 2002 – 2004, Prof. Samarajiva was the Team Leader at the Sri Lanka Ministry for Economic Reform, Science and Technology and participated in designing the e-Sri Lanka Development Program which was implemented by the ICT Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka. He was a founder Director of ICTA from 2003 to 2005 and was its Chair from April 2018 to December 2019.
- Siri Samarakkody, Mr.
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Mr. Siri Samarakkody was educated at Royal College Colombo. He was the Secretary of the Radio Club. This is where he first evinced interest in electronics. He has been awarded an Honors Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from the UK. He was a pioneer in bringing mobile telephony to Sri Lanka – he was the founder CEO of Celltel Lanka where he was involved in initial license negotiation and technical aspects. He was also involved in setting up Lanka Internet, which started the first commercial website in Sri Lanka, www.lanka.net.
top - Gihan Dias, Prof.
