Nalaka Gunawardene

Nalaka Gunawardene "is an award-winning science writer and media professional who takes a keen interest in the social and cultural impact of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

"Nalaka has worked as a journalist, writer and broadcaster in his native Sri Lanka and in the Asia Pacific region. He covered science, technology and development issues for Sri Lanka's English language press from 1986 to 1992, and won three national awards for excellence. During this period he was also a guest presenter and producer for national radio and television. He later worked as a communications specialist with several international organisations including the Asia Foundation (www.asiafoundation.org), IUCN - the World Conservation Union (www.iucn.org) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (www.unescap.org).

"Since 1996, Nalaka has headed TVE Asia Pacific (www.tveap.org), a non-profit organisation that uses television, video and the World Wide Web to raise awareness on environment, development, health, human rights, science and technology issues. It is registered as a non-profit company in Sri Lanka, with an international board of directors, and runs regional programmes that cover four sub-regions, i.e. East Asia, South Asia, South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Nalaka is also on the Board of Panos South Asia (www.panos.org.np) that works with media and civil society to catalyse informed discussion and debate on development issues in the world's most populous sub-region.

"Author of four books and editor of two dozen technical publications, Nalaka has written over 2,500 popular science articles, syndicated features, columns and radio/TV scripts. Most recently, Nalaka co-wrote the Sri Lanka chapter in the Digital Review of Asia Pacific 2003-2004, a regional assessment undertaken on behalf of the UNDP, UNESCO and Pan Asia Networking initiative (www.digital-review.org)."