A felicitation ceremony organized by the Department of Mathematics to appreciate the forty-two years of service of Senior Professor D.D.S. Kulathunga at his retirement was held on the 01st of February 2018 at the Board Room of the Faculty of Science.
Prof. D.D.S. Kulatunga entered to the Vidyalankara Campus of the University of Sri Lanka to follow the B.Sc degree in Physical Science. On his excellence performance of first three years he was selected to follow the B.Sc. special degree in Mathematics and successfully completed his special degree in 1975 with a first class honors.
In November 1976, he joined to the Department of Mathematics as a probationary assistant lecturer. After receiving a Japanese government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho), he entered to Kyushu University to pursue higher studies under the supervision of Prof. Akio Kudo. He obtained his Master’s degree in 1982 and obtained his PhD in 1985. The concept of “Multivariate Isotonic Regression” and an algorithm for computing the Multivariate Isotonic Regression in the field of Mathematical Statistics was first introduced by Prof D. D. S. Kulatunga and two Japanese mathematicians in 1983. He was appointed as a Professor in Mathematics in 2002 and was promoted to the post of senior professor in 2009.
In 1999 Prof Kulatunga was appointed as the head of the department of Mathematics and in 2012, he was elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Science. He was the chairman of the Board of Study on Physical Sciences of the Faculty of Graduate studies. He has served as a member of the National Committee on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education of the National Science Foundation.
Throughout the past forty-two years Professor Kulatunga made an outstanding service for the department of Mathematics, the Faculty of Science, the university and the Nation.
The ceremony was held under the patronage of Professor D.M. Semasinghe, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya. The event was graced by Senior Professor Lakshman Senevirathne, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sarath Amunugama, former Vice-Chancellor, Deans of the Faculties, Senior Professor N.P. Sunil-Chandra, Cadre Chair in Medical Micro-Biology and Chairman of the Research Council, Heads and academic staff of the Departments of the Faculty of Science, Mr. W.M. Karunaratne, Registrar, undergraduates and non-academic staff of the Faculty of Science.
