Plenary Speakers

Prof. Srinath Perera
Western Sydney University, Australia

Srinath joined Western Sydney University in June 2016 after serving as Professor of Construction Economics at Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK. He currently leads the Construction Managemnt group and the Centre for Smart Modern Construction (c4SMC) at WSU. During his period at Northumbria University he led the Construction Economics & Management Research Group in Faculty of Engineering & Environment. Prior to joining Northumbria University he was the Course Director leading the Quantity Surveying group at University of Ulster in Northern Ireland from 2003 to 2009.
Srinath is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN). He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building (AIB) and a Chartered Surveyor and a corporate member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS). He has worked as a consultant Quantity Surveyors and Project Manager in the construction industry in the private sector.
Srinath’s career commenced as he graduated with First Class Honours from the BSc Honours in Quantity Surveying degree at University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka where he received the Best Graduate Award for topping the cohort in all four years of the programme. Since then he has worked as a consultant quantity surveyor, project manager and as an academic in quantity surveying in Sri Lanka, Ireland, UK and Australia. In1995 he completed Master of Science in Information Technology (in property & construction) at the University of Salford, UK achieving the Top Student Award. He then went on to complete his doctoral studies in applying Artificial Intelligence techniques in Project Management. He received his PhD in 1997 from the University of Salford, UK.
Upon successful completion of his doctoral studies in 1997 he re-joined University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka where as a senior academic and led the BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying programme to successful accreditation by the RICS and AIQS. He was the Course Director for the MSc in Project Management programme conducted by the University of Moratuwa until he joined University of Ulster in 2003.
In 1997 Srinath was elected as the Honorary Secretary of the Institute of Quantity Surveyors Sri Lanka and held the post till his departure to the UK in 2003. During this period he was actively involved in promoting the Quantity Surveying profession in Sri Lanka and was an active member of the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA). From 2003, he re-joined the RICS and was actively involved with the activities of the RICS Northern Ireland promoting quantity surveying education within the region. Subsequently, he was appointed to the North East regional board of the RICS in 2013.
In 2000, he received HE Presidential Award for internationally recognised academic publications awarded by Her Excellency the President of Sri Lanka for outstanding research publication with high citation index. During his period at University of Ulster, he was actively involved in research and was a core member of the Built Environment Research Institute (BERI) and headed the Construction Research group. During that period, he also played a key role in research for the Constructing Excellence Northern Ireland.
He has successfully supervised to completion several doctoral and higher degree candidates. He has also examined several doctoral candidates from many countries around the globe. He also served as the external examiner for several undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes including at the London South Bank University, Kingston University, University of Salford, Bolton University, Robert Gordon University in the UK and University of Mauritius in Mauritius, Letterkenny Institute of Technology in the Republic of Ireland among others.