Abhinandana 2008 - Kusuma Karunaratne

About Prof. Kusuma Karunaratne

Professor Kusuma Karunaratne (born November 21, 1940.) was former Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Sinhala at the same university. She is renowned for her work in Sinhalese studies, and the strengthening of Japan-Sri Lanka relations.

Karunaratne's brilliance was rewarded, when she became the first female to get a permanent appointment in the staff at the university. Later on, she went on to achieve many more firsts in her field, such as being the first female Professor of Sinhala and the first female Dean in Sri Lanka.

She was recently awarded the Fellowship of the Japan Foundation and later the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, a prestige similar to being Knighted.

About Asuntha

Asuntha Karunaratne BBSc (Hons) (Monash University) is a PhD student at the Department of Medicine, Monash Medical School, Alfred Hospital. Asuntha has experience in ethics teaching at Monash University for undergraduate Medical students, Radiography, and Health Sciences students.

            Asuntha is an emerging young talent in Melbourne, daughter to the well-known local artiste Rohana Karunaratne. She is the female vocalist of “Tharanga” led by Cameron Colombage.

Asuntha was first revealed to the public through dancing. She was a Kandian dance pupil of Soma Kirialla at Vishaka Montessori from the age of five, and appeared in her first dancing concert at “Nawa Rangahala”. From the age of six she attended Musaeus College and became a pupil of Daya Nellampitiya’s dancing group.