Executive committee

Oscar Amarasinghe is a social scientist specialising in small-scale fisheries, fisheries governance and development economics. He holds a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Peradeniya, an MSc in Agricultural Development from Ghent University, Belgium, and a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Namur, Belgium.

Over more than three decades he has worked on small-scale fisheries, livelihoods, development economics and coastal resource management, with national bodies and international organisations including the FAO. His work includes the national fisheries policy process, transboundary fisheries in the North, the ILO Work in Fishing Convention 188 and the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. He founded the Sri Lanka Forum for Small Scale Fisheries and served as its president.

Achini De Silva is Senior Professor in Agribusiness Management at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. She holds a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Ruhuna, an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, and a PhD from Hiroshima University, Japan.

A Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship and an Endeavour Australia Fellowship built her links with international research groups. Her awards include the D.N. Choraphus Award of the Swiss Academy of Sciences for best young scientist (2004), best PhD student and best research publication at Hiroshima University (2007), best researcher of Sabaragamuwa University (2013) and the university's best research grant holder (2020). She led the Fishing for Life 2022 scientific committee and edited its book of abstracts.

Ruwini Basnayake is a Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness Management at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, where she earned her BSc and, in 2025, her MPhil. Her MPhil compared the market chains of the lobster and giant freshwater prawn industries in Sri Lanka, covering market structure, value addition and livelihood opportunities.

In 2025 she received the Nansen Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) Prize at the FAO World Food Forum for her work on resilient fisheries value chains. She was also selected for an Australia Awards Fellowship on upgrading the giant freshwater prawn value chain. Her research covers fisheries and aquaculture value chains, sustainable food systems, digital innovation in agriculture and rural livelihoods.

Sulochana Senevirathne is a Lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Her MPhil in Agribusiness Management examined climate finance, financial inclusion and resilience building in Sri Lanka's small-scale fisheries.

She has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on nationally and internationally funded projects and has published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Her interests include climate change adaptation, sustainable fisheries, women's economic empowerment and inclusive finance.

Yasoda Hirimuthugoda is Professor in Animal Science at the University of Ruhuna, where she has taught since 1999. She holds a BSc in Agriculture (Ruhuna, 1996), an MPhil in Aquaculture (Peradeniya, 2001) and a PhD in Marine Biology from the Ocean University of China (2007), and is a visiting scientist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

She has published around 40 full papers and 35 abstracts, and has received Presidential Research Awards (2010) and the National Science Foundation SUSRED Award (2013). Her research covers aquaculture, animal genetics and breeding, molecular biology and ethno-veterinary science.

Nilantha De Silva is Senior Professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Ruhuna. Qualifications include a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Ruhuna, an MSc in Forestry and Environmental Management from the University of Peradeniya, and a PhD from the University of Ruhuna.

Research interests cover natural resource management, fisheries economics and value chains, wetland and environmental management, sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation.

Ahilan Kadirgamar is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Jaffna. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, an MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

His research covers agrarian change, co-operatives and economic alternatives. He is a fortnightly columnist in the Daily Mirror, writes on Sri Lanka's political economy for The Hindu and the Economic and Political Weekly, and sits on the editorial board of the Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences. He is Honorary Chair of the Northern Co-operative Development Bank and a board member of People's Bank, and served on the Central Bank committee that drafted the economic development framework for a Northern Province master plan (2018).