Nationality Sri Lankan Name Nimal Rajapakshe Religion Theravada Buddhism | Occupation Academic, Professor Ethnicity Sinhalese | |
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Alma mater Ananda College, University of Ceylon, Asian Institute of Technology | ||
Nimal Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan born academic who lives in Canada. Currently a Professor of Engineering at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, he was the Vice-President (Research and International) of Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He was a department head and civil engineering professor of University of Manitoba from 1985 to 2000. He served as department head and mechanical engineering professor of University of British Columbia, Canada. He was Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Simon Fraser University, Canada from 2009 to 2015.
He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, The Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. He has received several prizes and awards for research and professional excellence.
Education
After a year in a school in his village near Attanagalla, he came to Olcott College and after a year entered Ananda College, Colombo in grade 3, following in his grandfather's and father's foot steps. Four generations of his family studied at Ananda College. Later he gained admission to the University of Sri Lanka, Katubedda Campus from where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. He received a scholarship to study at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, in 1980, from which he received a master's degree in 1981 and a D. Eng. in Engineering in 1983. He was a recipient of Thai King's Scholarship for doctoral studies. Asian Institute of Technology honored him as the Notable Alumni Speaker for the 2017 May graduation.