Prof. Upul Subasinghe was re-elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences for the second consecutive time at the Board Meeting of the respective faculty, held under the chairmanship of Senior Prof. Pathmalal M. Manage, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Prof. Upul Subasinghe graduated from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura with an Honours Degree in Botany and later joined the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science as a lecturer. He earned his Ph.D. in Forest Management from the University of Bangor, UK. Additionally, he won scholarships from the Asian Development Bank to study Remote Sensing and GIS in Thailand and received a Commonwealth Fellowship at the University of Bangor. He has also conducted joint research with experts from Curtin University and Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, as well as the World Wildlife Fund. Since 2021, he has been serving as an Environment and Disaster Management Program Associate at the World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, USA.
Prof. Subasinghe has held several key administrative positions at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, including Head of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Coordinator of the MSc Program in Forestry and Environment, Deputy Proctor of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and Chairman of the Faculty Research Committee. He also served as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Tropical Forestry and Environment (2013-2016) and Editor-in-Chief of the Vidyodaya Journal of Science (2018-2021). Notably, he served as the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university from December 2022 to August 2023.
Beyond academia, Prof. Subasinghe has contributed significantly to various national and international committees. He was elected as the President of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka, for the 2007-08 period and has served as a trained Forest Certification Auditor for the Forest Stewardship Council. He has also chaired the Expert Committee on Forest Certification under the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment. His expertise has been instrumental in initiatives such as the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, the Haritha Lanka National Action Plan, the Ecosystem Conservation & Management Project, and the Forestry Sector Master Plan Preparation. He also led the development of Forest Certification Standards stipulated by the Forest Stewardship Council for Sri Lanka during the 2019-20 period.
Additionally, Prof. Subasinghe has been actively involved in international collaborations, serving as the President of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka (2006-07), Chair of the International Forestry and Environment Symposium (2014, 2018-2022), and a Director of the Taiwan Agarwood Society since 2013.
His re-election as Dean underscores his continued commitment to the advancement of the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the broader academic and research community.
