Advancing Multidisciplinary Approaches for a Sustainable and Resilient Future Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Rohitha Rosairo currently works as a professor in Agribusiness Management attached to the Department of Agribusiness Management, Faculty of Agricultural Science, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and has over 25 years of work experience in higher education and research. He obtained B.Sc. Agriculture (Hons) degree from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, MBA from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Ph.D. from Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. He holds a Commonwealth Post-doctoral Fellowship on farmer entrepreneurial attitudes from the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. He has been involved in curricular development, postgraduate program administration and supervision and many national and international research and development projects as a consultant and a resource person. His research interests are agribusiness management, farmer organizations, agribusiness strategy and sustainability.

M.S.M Aslam is a professor in Tourism Management attached to the Department of Tourism Management at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL). He obtained his bachelor’s degree B.Sc. Business Studies (Specialization in Tourism Management) from Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka in 1998 and M.Sc. in Management at University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. He obtained his Ph.D. in tourism from Universiti Putra Malaysia under the title ‘Contribution of Tourism to Sustainable Rural Development in Sri Lanka’. He has carried out a number of research and publications in different areas of tourism, such as the role of inbound travel agencies, sustainable tourism development, tea tourism, sustainable rural tourism development, spice and herbs tourism, historic lodging, tourism planning and development, heritage motoring tourism and enterprising rural tourism. Professor Aslam also serves as a resource person/advisor/consultant for national and international-level tourism planning and development projects.

Eranga M. Wimalasiri is a senior lecturer attached to the Department of Export Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural Science, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. He graduated with B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences and Management from the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and obtained his Ph.D. on crop modelling from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. He has postdoctoral research experience on agri-environmental modelling at Crops for the Future Research Centre, Malaysia. He is currently working on the development of decision support systems for neglected/ underutilized crops, crop and climate modelling, climate change and climate adaptation studies. Dr. Eranga was the chair of the 9th International Conference of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (ICSUSL 2023).

Sadeera Bandara, a physicist/programmer/innovator, was a lecturer attached to the Department of Physical Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. He obtained his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA and B.Sc. (special) in Physics from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He was awarded as the Best Researcher of the Year 2018 of the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. He is working on high-energy nuclear/particle physics.

Thilini C. Gamage is a professor in Marketing attached to the Department of Marketing Management, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Her research interests centre around Digital Marketing, Technology Management, Tourism and Hospitality Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Her research works were published in leading top-tier international journals, including Tourism Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal of Hospitality Management and Journal of Family Business Management.