SLAAS Postgraduate Research Award, 2011
Dr K V G Sajani Dias was presented with a Postgraduate Research Award, 2011 (Merit Award)
at the 67th Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in
recognition of her high accomplishments and achievements in the field of Immunology and
Molecular Biology during her postgraduate research carried out at the Department of Zoology,
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her research project was funded by both the NSF (research
grant t No. NSF/RG/2005/HS/06) and the NRC, Sri Lanka.
A past pupil of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo and Southlands College, Galle, Dr Dias graduated
with First Class Honours in Biotechnology from the University of Bangalore, India in 2005. She
obtained her PhD in 2010 from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka under the guidance of Prof
Preethi V Randeniya (Professor in Zoology, University of Colombo), Dr Anusha GunasekaraMunasinghe (Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public
Health, and currently Research Scientist, Sanaria Inc, USA) and Dr Shirley Longacre (Director,
Laboratoire de Vaccinologie Parasitaire, Institute Pasteur, France).
Dr Dias’s doctoral thesis titled “Strain-specific immunity to Plasmodium vivax asexual stage
antigens in Sri Lanka” has resulted in 16 research communications presented at both
international and local forums. Based on this work, she also has to her credit 03 research
publications in international peer reviewed journals i.e. Journal of Infection, Genetics and
Evolution, Journal of Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology and Vaccine in the years
2010 and 2011. She has co-authored a paper published in the Ceylon Journal of Science in 2008.
She was also the recipient of the 1st prize for scientific papers in Basic Immunology at the 5th
Biennial Sessions of the Allergy and Immunology Society of Sri Lanka in 2010. Dr Dias
obtained a World Health Organization sponsored training fellowship in 2007 to participate in the
“Advanced WHO/TDR Course on Immunology, Vaccinology and Biotechnology Applied to
Infectious Diseases” organized by the WHO Immunology Research and Training Centre, Geneva
/ Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a life member of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement
of Science, Institute of Biology, and the Allergy and Immunology society of Sri Lanka.
Dr Dias is currently involved in a malaria project funded by the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination
Network (APMEN) and functions as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of
Zoology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.