Gender: Woman
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Academy Affiliation: National Academy of Sciences
Academy Country: Sri Lanka
Field: Medical parasitology: teaching and research.

NOMINATED FOR: Co-Chair Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC);Advisory Committee;Policy Advice Committee;
TERM: Candidate has previously served on a different IAP leadership position

DESCRIPTION OF INVOLVEMENT IN THE ACADEMY'S ACTIVITIES OR IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS:
Prof. Karunaweera spearheaded the establishment of the Sri Lanka chapter of organization for women in science for the developing world (OWSD) and was the founder president of that organization (2018-2021). 
She is the immediate past president of the NASSL and has successfully organized a number of  events of the IAP and AASSA over the past several years. She is a board member of the governance council of the genomic epidemiology of malaria network, university of Oxford, UK and has served as a consultant /advisor to the strategic research steering committee on pathogenesis and functional genomics, world health organization (WHO) for over a decade. 
Fellows of the NASSL including Prof. Karunaweera continue to be actively involved in many IAP programmes including urban health, big data/open data initiative, the IAMP exploring traditional medicines experts project  and the promotion of IAMP young physician leaders workshops. The NASSL's contributions towards mobilization and active participation of the national academies of Asia in  all IAP activities would be enhanced through the proposed nomination.  The NASSL strongly believes its representation through the election of Prof. Karunaweera to a position within the significant decision making bodies of the IAP would provide it with an opportunity to better promote networking amongst knowledge centres and stimulate knowledge transfers between member countries to strengthen each others national knowledge based ecosystems.

EVIDENCE OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES IN AN IAP, NATIONAL ACADEMY OR OTHER SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION'S GOVERNING BODY:

Prof. Karunaweera has been an active member of the IAP and its committees for over a decade in her capacity as the President of the NASSL council (2022-2024), its General Secretary (2014-2019), and Foreign Secretary (2013-2014). She has readily offered her services to IAP activities and functions, particularly as a former member of its Policy Board (formerly Research Board), current member of the Capacity Building Committee, grant proposal review committee, AASSA committee on Women in Science and Education, and through her pro-active involvement in making connections between the IAP and local organizations in Sri Lanka during the development of the sexual harassment in academia project. More recently, she has been a part of the IAP sub-committee that laid the groundwork for a project on 'Integrating artificial intelligence in medical education'. She has also been the former IAP representative for Sustainable Health Equity Movement (SHEM).