Two Sri Lankan-born scientists at the University of Hong Kong have been ranked amongst China’s top microbiologists. Prof. Lakshman Samaranayake and Prof. Malik Peiris ranked 11th and 15th respectively, out of 43,737 scientists analysed by the national scientometric analytic firm.
Both professors hold honorary professoriate appointments at the University of Peradeniya and are world renowned for their clinical microbiological work and have received honorary doctorates from the University of Peradeniya for their contributions to medical research.
Prof. Samaranayake, best known for his work in internal medicine, bacteria and diseases, was the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Hong Kong, and under his leadership it became the number one dental school in the World in 2015, as per QS World University Rankings.
Lakshman 'Sam' Samaranayake Sri Lankan clinical academic with expertise in diagnostic clinical microbiology and research, senior executive level administration, and dental pedagogy and is best known for his work with Candidiasis.
After serving as a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist in Glasgow, UK he joined the academia. Since then, working in five different trans-continental universities, he has authored over 450 scientific communications, cited over 27,000 occasions (h-index 90)).[2] Subsequently, he served over 12 years as the Executive Dean of two major dental schools in Hong Kong (a top five ranking dental school globally), and Australia at the University of Hong Kong and University of Queensland, respectively.
He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to dentistry, including the King James IV Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, UK, and the Distinguished Scientist Award of IADR, USA.[3] He holds many visiting/honorary professor appointments in the universities of Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, the UK, the Middle East, and China.
Prof.Samaranayake was born in Sri Lanka and attended the Royal College, Sri Lanka for his secondary education. He then earned his Bachelor of Dental Sciences (BDS) degree from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and received his Doctoral Degree (DDS), at the University of Glasgow, UK through research into oral candidal infections, where he served as a Consultant/ Senior Lecturer in Oral Medicine and Pathology; simultaneously he was an honorary consultant in microbiology to the Greater Glasgow Health Board, Scotland (1985-1990).
He obtained his training in medical and oral microbiology, at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK under Professor Morag Timbury. Subsequently, he became a member, and then a fellow of the college, by examination in clinical microbiology. He was the first dentist from South East Asia to do so, and the fourth, internationally to gain such recognition.
Then he served as an associate professor at the University of Alberta, Canada (1990-1991), and Reader /Professor University of Hong Kong(1991-2013), University of Queensland, Australia (2014-2016), Kuwait University (2017-2018) and as a Visiting Professor at Sharjah University, UAE through invitation (2018-2020). Currently, he is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong and an honorary professor at the Universities of Thailand, Indonesia, Oman, China, and Sri Lanka.[5]
With an h index of 90 derived from over 480 scientific communications and cited in the literature on more than 27,000 occasions he is amongst the top 2% of global scientist, and considered as the foremost, global authority on oral fungal diseases and related human mycoses.[6] Additionally, he is amongst the top ten most cited scholars in the discipline of Dentistry.
He is the first Sri Lankan and the Asian to awarded the King James IV Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for exceptionally outstanding research in dental surgical sciences (conferred in 2013. He has received numerous awards and honors as follows:
The first medical or dental professional from Asia to receive the coveted King James IV Professorship award of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for services to surgical sciences.
The first Sri Lankan dental professional to receive the Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) award from the University of Peradeniya the only Sri Lankan, thus far, to have spearheaded, as a Dean, the creation of a university faculty that is ranked number 1 in the World (by QS World University Rankings)
The only Sri Lankan to be a dean of two major University Faculties (at the University of Hong Kong, and University of Queensland, Australia the first Sri Lankan dental professional to receive the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK.
The first Asian dentist, to receive the Distinguished Scientist Award from the International Association for Dental Research The sole dentist from Sri Lanka to receive an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal Australasian College of Dentists, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Edinburgh, and the Hong Kong College of Dental Surgeons
The first, to be awarded the Tam Wah-Ching Professor of Dental Sciences at The University of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, virologist Prof. Malik Peiris, best known in the fields of viruses, genes and diseases, is most notable for being the first person to isolate the SARS virus.
Currently serving as the Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science, and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, Prof. Peiris earned his MBBS from the University of Peradeniya in 1972.
He was later awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1977 and went to the University of Oxford for a DPhil at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, graduating in 1981.
Prof. Peiris’s most notable findings include research on the Avian influenza, the SARS virus and the COVID-19 virus.
He holds a world ranking of 883 and 14,274 in the fields of microbiology and medicine, respectively, with 38,484 citations and 235 publications in microbiology, and 38,571 citations and 240 publications in the field of medicine.
Prof. Peiris, who won the ‘Life Science Prize’ under the 2021 Future Science Prize, also holds a D-index of 75 in both fields.
Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris SBS FRS FRCP FRCPath FFPH born 10 November 1949is a Hong Kong-based British and Sri Lankan virologist, most notable for being the first person to isolate the SARS virus. He is the current Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science, and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong. He was a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization of the World Health Organization from 2009 to 2010.
Peiris was born on 10 November 1949in Kandy, Sri Lanka. He attended school at St. Anthony's College, Kandy, and entered the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in 1967, obtaining his MBBS in 1972.
After his DPhil, Peiris returned to Sri Lanka as a senior lecturer and set up a virology department at the University of Peradeniya, which was created after the split-up of the University of Sri Lanka (formerly the University of Ceylon).
In 1988, because of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Peiris went back to Newcastle upon Tyne to become a consultant virologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He moved to Hong Kong in 1995, tasked with setting up a clinical virology unit at Queen Mary Hospital and the University of Hong Kong.
Peiris's research interest is in emerging viral diseases, especially those passed from animals to humans, using a multidisciplinary approach termed "One-Health", which Peiris has defined as a "collaboration between the animal health, environmental health, human health, and laboratory sectors."
Currently at HKU, Malik is the Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health. Since 2021, he has been working part time. He is also a Co-Director of the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory and the WHO SARS-CoV-2 reference laboratory, the Director of Centre of Influenza Research and the Managing Director of the Centre for Immunology and Infection. He retired from the position of Co-Director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, jointly created in 2000 by HKU and the Pasteur Institute in France and became an Honorary Director.
In 1988, because of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Peiris went back to Newcastle upon Tyne to become a consultant virologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He moved to Hong Kong in 1995, tasked with setting up a clinical virology unit at Queen Mary Hospital and the University of Hong Kong.
Currently at HKU, Malik is the Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health. Since 2021, he has been working part time. He is also a Co-Director of the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory and the WHO SARS-CoV-2 reference laboratory, the Director of Centre of Influenza Research and the Managing Director of the Centre for Immunology and Infection. He retired from the position of Co-Director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, jointly created in 2000 by HKU and the Pasteur Institute in France and became an Honorary Director.
