Two Sri Lankan-born professors amongst top microbiologists in China

Two Sri Lankan-born scientists at the University of Hong Kong have been ranked amongst China’s top microbiologists.

Accordingly, as per the statistics gathered by “Research.com”, Prof. Lakshman Samaranayake and Prof. Malik Peiris ranked 11th and 15th respectively, out of 43,737 scientists analysed by the national scientometric analytic firm.

Both professors hold honorary professoriate appointments at the University of Peradeniya, and are world renowned for their clinical microbiological work and have received honorary doctorates from the University of Peradeniya for their contributions to medical research.

Prof. Samaranayake, best known for his work in internal medicine, bacteria and diseases, was the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Hong Kong, and under his leadership it became the number one  dental school in the World in 2015,as per QS World University Rankings. 

His research investigates the connection between Corpus albicans and topics such as Virulence that intersect with problems in Fungal protein. His studies deal with areas such as Oral and maxillofacial pathology, Disease, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and Oral microbiology as well as Immunology. As part of one scientific family, he deals mainly with the area of Biofilm, narrowing it down to issues related to the Lactobacillus acidophilus, and often Lactobacillus rhamnosus.

Ranked 494th in world rankings, Prof. Samaranayake has 22,862 citations and 628 publications under his name, and a D-index of 87. 

The D-index threshold for including a researcher to be examined is established at 40 if the majority of their publications are in the area of Microbiology. The acceptance criteria for researchers to be considered into the ranking of top researchers are based on the D-index, proportion of the contributions made within the selected area as well as the awards and achievements of the scholars. 

Meanwhile, virologist Prof. Malik Peiris, best known in the fields of viruses, genes and diseases, is most notable for being the first person to isolate the SARS virus.

Currently serving as the Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science, and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, Prof. Peiris earned his MBBS from the University of Peradeniya in 1972.

He was later awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1977 and went to the University of Oxford for a DPhil at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, graduating in 1981.

Prof. Peiris’s most notable findings include research on the Avian influenza, the SARS virus and the COVID-19 virus.

He holds a world ranking of 883 and 14,274 in the fields of microbiology and medicine, respectively, with 38,484 citations and 235 publications in microbiology, and 38,571 citations and 240 publications in the field of medicine.

Prof. Peiris, who won the ‘Life Science Prize’ under the 2021 Future Science Prize, also holds a D-index of 75 in both fields.

Research.com is a research portal for science rankings. It maintains a database of more than 27,000 leading scientists to assist professors, research fellows, and those studying for a Ph.D. or a master’s degree to progress with their research and to ensure they are always up to date with the latest conferences around the world and publications related to their work. Research.com publishes an annual ranking of leading scientists in a wide range of scientific disciplines.