Shaveendra is a Senior Researcher at LIRNEasia, where he focuses on assessing government policy responsiveness and preparedness to support workforces in adapting to the opportunities and challenges brought about by artificial intelligence. His work aims to support low-resource countries, particularly in the Global South, in developing effective policies that enable their workforces to benefit from artificial intelligence while mitigating workforce displacement caused by AI. Shaveendra brings over six years of experience in the governance and development sector in Sri Lanka. His research and policy engagement span a wide range of areas, including anti-corruption, social cohesion, refugee law, and human rights. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London and a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Human Rights Law from the University of Galway, Ireland. 
Shaveendra is a Senior Researcher at LIRNEasia, where he focuses on assessing government policy responsiveness and preparedness to support workforces in adapting to the opportunities and challenges brought about by artificial intelligence. His work aims to support low-resource countries, particularly in the Global South, in developing effective policies that enable their workforces to benefit from artificial intelligence while mitigating workforce displacement caused by AI. Shaveendra brings over six years of experience in the governance and development sector in Sri Lanka. His research and policy engagement span a wide range of areas, including anti-corruption, social cohesion, refugee law, and human rights. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London and a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Human Rights Law from the University of Galway, Ireland. 
Madhushan Ramalingam is a Data Science Researcher at LIRNEasia, where he explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, social good, and ethical technology. At LIRNEasia, Madhushan contributes to several cutting-edge projects. He works on countering misinformation with generative AI tools in low-resource language contexts, a project funded by IDRC. This involves developing robust data pipelines and experimenting with both open-source and proprietary state-of-the-art large language models. He is also engaged in studying patterns associated with virality in Sri Lankan tweets, funded by The Asia Foundation, and leads efforts to build an AI-assisted ethical spell checker to support the journalism industry in Sri Lanka. 
Amanda Ariyaratne is part of the Data, Algorithms, and Policy team at LIRNEasia. Her work focuses on applying machine learning and AI to address policy-relevant challenges. She is currently analyzing residential electricity consumption in Sri Lanka to uncover usage patterns and citizen behaviors. She is also studying how urbanization has changed over time using historical and recent satellite imagery, building on LIRNEasia’s prior research. In addition, she is examining student behavior in online learning systems to design AI-driven recommendation systems for personalized learning. 
Ranushi joined LIRNEasia in May 2025 as a Junior Data Science Researcher in the Data, Algorithms, and Policy (DAP) team. She holds a BSc (Honours) in Industrial Statistics with First Class Honours from the University of Colombo. At LIRNEasia, she is involved in data engineering for the Lacuna project, which aims to build a machine-learning dataset on household electricity consumption in Sri Lanka. She also contributes to projects that use natural language processing to analyze narrative convergence in Sri Lanka’s media landscape, as well as on AI-assisted clinical decision support system to improve pediatric diagnosis in hospitals. Prior to joining LIRNEasia, she worked as a Data Science Intern at Octave, the data and advanced analytics center at John Keells Holdings. 
Since joining LIRNEasia in February 2025 as a Junior Researcher, Anish Fonseka has been working on areas such as AI in Education and Responsible AI Governance. His ongoing work includes: (1) managing an experiment on LLM use in tertiary education, (2) research around AI in education, public policy, and healthcare (3) testing responsible AI toolkits. Anish has also researched Social Protections, Data Enrichment Work, and Digital Public Infrastructure for LIRNE’s other projects. Prior to joining LIRNEasia, he worked as a Project Manager at CAFT, an agriculture tech company which is a joint venture with Elpitiya Plantations. He oversaw R&D in drone based autonomous farming for Tea, Coconut and Paddy. 
Since joining LIRNEasia in February 2025 as a Junior Researcher, Chanduni has contributed to projects spanning social protection, the future of work, information disorder, and responsible AI. She currently serves as a Regional Supervisor overseeing 21 countries within LIRNEasia’s Asia-Pacific hub, and as the Country Researcher for Sri Lanka for the second edition of the Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI), led by the Global Center for Governance (GCG). Her past work at LIRNEasia includes: Contributing to background research and analysis for an internal synthesis report outlining country approaches to social protection for platform workers under the IDRC FutureWORKS Asia project. In relation to information disorder, coordinating logistics, communications, panelist management, and vendor workflows for two dissemination events held in Colombo and Jaffna, supporting the presentation of findings from a nationally representative survey and an experimental study on misinformation countermeasures. Prior to joining LIRNEasia, Chanduni worked as a Junior Research Analyst with the Parliament Research Team at Verité Research. 
Since January 2025, Vishmila is a Junior Researcher at LIRNEasia, utilizing her legal expertise to contribute to projects that address societal challenges and drive impactful change. Her work focuses on projects related to Data, Algorithms and Policy and regional connectivity through trade and ICT. Her research interests include health, gender, and public policy. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London and an MBA from the University of West London. With a strong background in fundamental rights and public law, Vishmila has extensive experience in legal research and advocacy, including a significant commitment to pro bono cases. 
Manusha was a Junior Researcher with the Data, Algorithms, and Policy (DAP) team at LIRNEasia. He held a Bachelor of Computing (Honours) in Computer Science with a minor in Economics from the National University of Singapore. His work focused on leveraging data science and machine learning to generate policy-relevant insights for the public good. At LIRNEasia, Manusha worked on AI governance and explored the impact of generative AI on information disorder. 
Pasdevan is a Junior Researcher at LIRNEasia, specializing in projects addressing misinformation. His broader research interests span poverty, livelihoods, governance, accountability, transparency, public administration, and public policy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Colombo and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy and Governance at North South University in Bangladesh. Before joining LIRNEasia in January, 2025, he worked as a Project Officer at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, where he gained extensive experience in community development, peace-building, reconciliation, and social cohesion. 
Sachini holds a BSc in Business Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. In addition to her academic background in economics, she is also an Attorney-at-Law, bringing interdisciplinary expertise to her research work. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Applied Statistics at the University of Colombo. Before joining LIRNEasia, Sachini worked as a Junior Macro Analyst at a fund management company, where she was engaged in macroeconomic research with a specific focus on Sri Lanka. She also has legal experience, having worked as a legal apprentice specializing in civil and commercial law, which provided her with exposure to legal analysis and regulatory frameworks. 
Yaseer is a Project Manager at LIRNEasia. He specialises in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, having previously worked with organisations such as ADB, UN-Habitat, UNFPA, JICA, and the World Bank. His project experience includes the preparation of Social Safeguard documents for project-affected communities, conducting socio-economic studies, developing Social Management Plans, performing Social Impact Assessments for development initiatives, overall project management, fieldwork planning and coordination, and people management. He has also been involved in research on the socio-economic conditions of high-density urban populations and has contributed to projects aimed at enhancing independent living opportunities for individuals with disabilities, as well as initiatives focusing on sexual and reproductive health communication and planning. Recently, he served as a sociologist conducting field surveys among both project-affected and non-affected communities. 
Iyanthi is a Junior Researcher at LIRNEasia, working on projects related to the Future of Work and countering information disorder by promoting digital and media literacy among early adolescents. As part of the FutureWORKS Asia project (Asia Hub for Regional Research Networks on the Future of Work), she serves as Hub Manager, leading administrative and operational efforts to support a regional research network focused on inclusive and sustainable work futures. Her role includes managing sub-granting processes, as well as overall communication and dissemination activities. Resisting Information Disorder in the Global South is an experimental study that employs qualitative methods to evaluate the effectiveness of countering information disorder using digital literacy programs among early adolescents. In this project, she was involved in qualitative research including survey design, data collection, data analysis, and research dissemination. 
Isuruni joined LIRNEasia as a Research Manager and Statistician in June 2023. She came with 19 years of experience from the market research industry, having worked at leading market research agencies in Sri Lanka in the capacity of a senior manager and in a private company as the Manager-Research where she built the research division. Her expertise lies mainly in the field of customised quantitative research where she has designed and handled many large-scale studies with all-island coverage. Isuruni holds a BSc (Honors) specialised in Statistics, and is also an Associate Member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM – UK). She is also a visiting lecturer at the Department of Statistics of the University of Colombo. 
Chanuka was a Researcher with the Data, Algorithms, and Policy (DAP) team at LIRNEasia. He holds a BSc (Honours) in Computer Science from the University of Kelaniya and has a keen interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence, particularly in the field of computer vision. During his time at LIRNEasia, Chanuka contributed to several cutting-edge projects at the intersection of technology and public policy. His work focused on using remote sensing for public policy applications and developing machine learning datasets related to climate change and energy. He played a key role in the Lacuna project, contributing to data engineering efforts to build a machine-learning dataset on household electricity consumption in Sri Lanka. 
Isuru Udakara joined LIRNEasia in February 2023 and currently works as a Junior Researcher. He is presently involved in the Ed-tech policy project, in addition to having contributed to a range of projects including the 20‐Month Dataset on Household Electricity Consumption and Its Drivers, Social Safety Nets and the State of Poverty in Sri Lanka, Rapid Assessment of the Social Registry and Aswesuma, Model Disability Assessment (MDA), Human Factors in Information Disorder and Finding Measures to Counter Misinformation, Data for Development, and the Qualitative Study to Understand the Effectiveness of Digital and Media Literacy Training to Counter Information Disorder in Sri Lanka. Isuru holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Development Studies with First Class from the University of Kelaniya, where he was awarded the Golden Medal by the Distinguished Professor N.K. Dangalle Foundation for Most Outstanding Student of the Year. 
Nipuni joined LIRNEasia as a Junior Researcher in December 2022 and currently serves as a Researcher, contributing to projects on social protection, digital development, artificial intelligence (AI), and education policy. She has worked across a range of regional and national projects, with a strong focus on research, stakeholder coordination, and policy engagement. Nipuni holds a Master of Philosophy in Social Sciences from the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (2023), and a bachelor’s degree with First Class Honours in Economics from the University of Colombo in 2020. In recognition of her outstanding academic achievements, she was bestowed with the Dean’s Award for Best Undergraduate Student of the Year in 2017. Prior to her role at LIRNEasia, she worked as a Research Assistant and also served as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Statistics at Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.