The Siri Wickremesinghe Oration 2017

The Siri Wickremesinghe Oration was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation on Friday 10th March 2017.

The Orator was Prof Faseeha Noordeen, Professor in Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya. The topic of the oration was “Dengue in Sri Lanka – Past and the Present Trends”.

The Oration outlined the dengue story in Sri Lanka from the 1960’s to the present times including the disease burden, vector dynamics, changes in the socio-geo-climatic factors and the evolution of dengue viruses in the island.

The orator has contributed to existing knowledge through undertaking studies that help understand virus detection and characterization, explore vector dynamics and assess the feasibility of diagnostic protocols in different healthcare settings.

Prof Faseeha Noordeen has a BSc in Veterinary Science and an M Phil from the University of Peradeniya and a PhD from the University of Adelaide, Australia. She is the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation and the University of Peradeniy. She has supervised numerous MSc, MPhil and PhD research projects. Her research interests include dengue virus infection, hepatitis B infection and vaccination, evaluation of rapid viral diagnostic assays and viral pathogens in respiratory and diarrhoeal disease in children. She has published her work widely in local and international journals and is the recipient of numerous Presidential Research Awards.

 

Posted in 2017