Dr. Nimal Rajapakse is currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology and a Professor of Civil Engineering. Dr. Rajapakse has extensive experience in academic administration, having served in administrative roles in four research universities in Canada.

He served as Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba from November 1997 to June 2000. He was the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) from 2000 to 2007. He was appointed in 2007 as Director of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems at UBC. Dr. Rajapakse was recruited to Simon Fraser University, Canada, in July 2009 as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. He served in that role until 2015. After that, he served as Vice-President (Research and International) of Carleton University, Canada.

• D.Eng. (Applied Mechanics) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1983
• M.Eng. (Structures & Mechanics) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1981
• B.Sc. Hons. (Civil Engineering - University of Sri Lanka (Katubedda), 1977

• Honorary Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guhawati, 2024
• Fellow, National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka , 2022
• Special Visiting Professor Award, Science Without Borders Program, CAPES Brazil, 2014-2018
• Fellow, Engineering Institute of Canada, 2009
• Meritorious Achievement Award, Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, 2005
• Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering, 2002
• Horst Leipholz Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Engineering Mechanics Research, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, 2000
• Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, Humboldt Foundation of Germany, 1992-1993
• Rh Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in Applied Sciences, Rh Institute and University of Manitoba, 1991
• Visiting Fellowship, Japan Society for Promotion of Science, 1990
• King's Scholarship, Thai Government, 1981-1983
• Open Scholarship, Asian Institute of Technology, 1979-1981

• Properties of cementitious materials enhanced with nanomaterials
• Atomic-scale finite element methods for nanomaterials and nanostructures
• Topological design of 2D materials via molecular simulation and machine learning
• Geomechanics and dynamic soil-structure interaction