Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society has awarded Sri Lankan born astronomer and scientist Ray Jayawardhana with the 2020 Carl Sagan Medal for his outstanding contributions in public communication of planetary science.
Prof. Ray Jayawardhana is currently working as the Harold Tanner Dean of the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences widely proclaimed as a writer and communicator of planetary sciences. So far he has written four books namely “Neutrino Hunters”, “Strange New Worlds”, “Star Facotires” and “Child of the Universe”. Apart from these he has written many articles on planetary science to magazines and newspapers including The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Muse, Scientific American, and more.
As a scientist he has published more than 130 journal publications many of which are on planetary science.
Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Prof. Ray Jayawardhana completed his primary and secondry education from St. Johns Collage in Nugegoda and Royal Collage Colombo.
As The Sri Lankan Scientist Magazine team we would like congratulate Prof. Ray Jayawardhana on this massive achievement and wish him all the best in future endeavors in Research and Science communication.
Featured Image- https://dps.aas.org/
