Eric Wikramanayake


Eric D. Wikramanayake is a Sri Lankan conservationist.

Education

Born to Elanga Wikramanayake, a lawyer his brothers are Arittha R Wikramanayake and Athula Wikramanayake. His grandfather was E. B. Wikramanayake. Educated at S. Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia. Wikramanayake represented the school in Cricket and captained the second XI cricket team coached by Quentin Israel and was a school prefect. Class mates included Saliya Ahangama, Guy de Alwis, PL Munasinghe, Paul R. Mather, Stefan D'Silva, Uthum Herat, Chanaka Amaratunga and Devaka Fernando.
He obtained a BS in Biology and M.S. in Biology from Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania and a PhD in Ecology from University of California, Davis, California.

Professional career

He has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant/Visiting Scientist Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA a Senior Conservation Scientist at World Wildlife Fund, Asia, USA. He is currently a Research Associate at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA and a Trustee at the .
His work has included mammalian biology, ecological structure and conservation of fish assemblages in tropical wet-zone streams of Sri Lanka and the thermal ecology and behavior of monitor lizards, including the largest lizard in the world, the Komodo dragon that lives on three small islands in eastern Indonesia.
He currently provides technical assistance and advice to WWF's ecoregion-based conservation program and flagship species programs in Asia.