Dr. Lal Samarakoon (01-09-1955-12-07-2024)

Dr. Lal Samarakoon was born in Dehipe, Padiyapalella, Nuwara Eliya. He had his primary education at Gampola Zahira College and Ratnapura Ferguson College, and entered the University of Kelaniya from Matale Science College.

Obtaining a B Sc. degree in Physical Science with a first class, he qualified as a Surveyor from the National Survey Department and started serving the Mahaweli Development Program in Girandurukotte in 1986. Lal was awarded a Monbusho Scholarship, by the Government of Japan to obtain the Doctor of Philosophy degree in remote sensing from the university of Ehime.

He served Nippon Koei, a planning, design and construction company for several years. In 1998, Lal was appointed the Director of Geoinformatics Center of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He served in this position till 2018.

Dr. Lal Samarakoon has represented a generation that has seen the disaster risk management discipline transition from the sidelines of a welfare-oriented subject to a full-fledged discipline, which has emerged as a component of development discourse subsequently. He was a deep-thinking technocrat, innovative scientist, and dependable professional who firmly believed technology applications are needed to manage disasters and build climate resilience in Asia.

He observed the significant capacity gaps that exist in Asia in applying remote sensing and GIS tools in disaster risk management, and supported the countries in the Asia region to reduce these capacity gaps over the last 30 years. During his longstanding career at the Geoinformatics Center of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) he developed methodologies which provided better exposure for disaster management professionals in the region to use spatial information in Disaster Risk Management.

He successfully partnered with other international technical and academic institutes, including with the postgraduate Institute of Science in Sri Lanka, broadening the objectives and opportunities for cross-learning. His work was instrumental to prove that scientific advancement can be utilized successfully and cost-effectively to improve disaster risk management and climate adaptation practices.

His work as a scientist supported applying spatial data in several countries in the Asia region; the Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal for disaster risk reduction. Dr. Samarakoon will be remembered for his pioneering and outstanding contributions to Sri Lanka, and other countries in the Asia region with scientific innovation, training, education and policy support. His untiring efforts have helped create a pool of disaster risk management practitioners in mandated institutions, a much needed contribution for meeting the current day disaster and climate risk challenges.

May he attain nibbana,

N.M.I.S. Arambepola
Nirmala Fernando
Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu