Leadership

Professor Madduma Bandara, was educated at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and the University of Cambridge, England. At Cambridge, he specialized in Fluvial Geomorphology and obtained his Doctoral Degree in 1971. Commencing his academic teaching career at the University of Colombo, he returned to his alma mater after obtaining his PhD from Cambridge and served for over forty years. There he became the Head of the Department of Geography and rose to the rank of Professor on Merit and finally became her Vice-Chancellor (1994-1997) – a position occupied earlier by illustrious academics such as Sir Ivor Jennings, who later became the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University. On his retirement, he was conferred the title of ‘Emeritus Professor’ by the University Senate.

Professor Madduma Bandara also had the experience of working at several universities overseas, including the University of  Ilorin, Nigeria (1977-79), Cambridge (1987), University of Tsukuba (1997), United Nations University (1999), Tokyo University (2000),  and finally at Kyoto University (2007/2008) as a Guest Professor in the Graduate School of Agriculture. While serving the University of Peradeniya, he also had the rare opportunity of working with reputed research scholars from, England, Japan, Germany, Sweden, India, and Nigeria in addition to those from his home turf. He also worked with several leading international organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, NORAD (Norwegian), GTZ (German), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He played a vital policy advisory role to the Government of Sri Lanka in the capacities of Chairman of the Presidential Land Commission (1985-1989), Chairman of the Interim National Water Resources Authority (2004), Chairman of the Academic Board of the National Institute of Education and the Chairman of the National Environmental Council. One of his more recent assignments by the Cabinet was to function as the Chairman of the Expert Committee on Water Resources Management.

Research studies of Professor Madduma Bandara were mostly focused on issues pertaining to the environment, land policy, and water resources. Some of his key contributions were in the fields of watershed management, coastal zone planning, agro-well development, and in the culture-environment inter-face dealing with traditional knowledge systems. He had been primarily responsible for the promotion of agro-wells in the dry zone (1970), development of the ‘concept of tank cascade systems’ (1985), (that was subsequently recognized as a Global Agricultural Heritage System by the FAO of the United Nations), and in the formulation of first National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP, 1991). In particular, he is well known for his proposal for the re-demarcation of the Provinces of Sri Lanka based on river basin watersheds. He has over 100 research papers and publications to his credit, of which some are in reputed international journals. His latest publication as Editor in Chief (2021),  titled “Freedom Struggles of Sri Lanka: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward” has attracted increasing attention from international academia.  He was honoured with a DSc (Hon.), and received an award of merit from Lanka Jalani (Sri Lanka National Counterpart of the Global Water Partnership), for his contributions to the water sector. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka and the Royal Geographical Society of London, and was honoured by the Association of Irrigation Engineers of Sri Lanka, for his contributions in the field.

In 2022 Professor C. M. Madduma Bandara was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt.) Honoris Causa of the University of Peradeniya, in recognition of his long service to the University and to academia.