We conducted awareness sessions to new students registered for the 2017/18 academic year. Objective of the session is to aware new students on academic programs and research possibilities within the department.
Prof. Pathmalal Manage, head of the department and Prof. Dinithi Peris won presidential awards for scientific publications in 2015. The President’s Awards for Scientific Publication was held on 6th November 2017. This year, twenty seven scientists of University of Sri Jayewardenepura received awards for their research, published in 2015. The ceremony was graced by His Excellency the President and the Hon. State Minister of Science, Technology and Research.
Final meeting to discuss the research output of the above project was held at the Applied Sciences new faculty complex, university of Sri Jayewardenepura on 10th October, 2017. Delegates from South Korea representing Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), Ocean Research Institute (ORI), and Marine Tech Engineering and Dr Kamal Ranatunga and research students of the Marine & Coastal Ecology Laboratory and representatives from Marine Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA) were participated. Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Prof Sudantha Liyanage was also join to grace the event.
The project was concluded with a great success. Some of the outcomes of the project include development of a Management plan for marine debris management in Negombo, survey of marine debris in beaches along the coast of Sri Lanka, submerged debris in the lagoon, fishery harbour and sensitive coastal ecosystems around Negombo and Beruwala. An addition, the Marine & Coastal Ecology Laboratory received technical support and some underwater survey equipment through the project. The Project was funded by 2012 Yeosu Korea Foundation, where University of Sri Jayewardenepura served as the research partner.
Marine and Coastal Ecology Laboratory of Department of Zoology, USJ headed by Dr Kamal Ranatunga received much needed collection of equipment for marine debris survey which include diving equipment, underwater video camera, camera lights and laptop worth of LKR 1 million. The equipment were donated by Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), Ocean Research Institute (ORI) and MATEC of South Korea for collaborative research project on “Building Capacity to Manage Marine Debris in Sri Lanka” and received by Prof Sudantha Liyanage, Dean Faculty of Applied Science and Dr Kamal Ranatunga of Department of Zoology.
