Professor Champathi Gunathilake has been working as a Professor in Post-Harvest Technology at the Institute for Agro Technology and Rural Sciences, University of Colombo, since August 2022. He graduated with a BSc in Agriculture, specializing in Agricultural Engineering, in 2000, and earned his MSc in Agricultural Engineering in 2004, both from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He successfully completed his PhD in the field of Processing and Food Engineering from the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), India, in 2009. He also has completed National Diploma of Technology (NDT) in Agriculture during 1995. In addition, he completed a Diploma in Project Management in 2016 from the Central Institute of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
He began his professional career as a Research Officer/Scientist in the Institute of Post-Harvest Technology (IPHT), Sri Lanka since year 2000. In 2010 he was promoted as a Senior Research Officer/Scientist. Simultaneous to that, he was also appointed as the Head of the Research Division at IPHT. He has worked as a Visiting Lecturer in Food Engineering for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Sri Jayawardhapura, Sri Lanka from 2011 to 2015. In January 2016, he moved to Australia and partook in a research project at the Institute of Agriculture, Western Australia. In year 2017, he joined Fiji National University (FNU), Fiji as an Assistant Professor in Agricultural Engineering. During September 2017, he was selected to work as the Associate Dean for College (Faculty) of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in FNU. He returned to Sri Lanka in year 2020 and joined National Engineering Research and Development Centre of Sri Lanka as a Principal Research Scientist. In April 2021, he joined the Institute for Agro-Technology and Rural Sciences, University of Colombo, as a Senior Lecturer Grade 1. He has developed a computer programme for optimization of paddy parboiling process, he also has membership of both The International Commission of Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering and the American society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers since 2005. He is also a member of the New Zealand Institute of Agriculture and Horticultural Science Inc. and a lifelong member of the Sri Lanka Association of Advancement of Science.