I was born in Sri Lanka in 1955. It was here that I attended the University of Sri Jayawardanapura Colombo, graduating in 1977 with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. I started my teaching career as an entry-level high school teacher in January 1978. In 1983 I continued my education at the University of Colombo where I earned Post-Graduate Diploma in Education. This is an intense one-year certification which is necessary to be qualified as a professional teacher in Sri Lanka and many other countries.

My other educational experience include graduating from the University of Sri Jayawardanapura Colombo in Sri Lanka with a Masters of Science in Food Science and Technology in 1990. My research completed for this degree was titled: "Enhancing the Keeping Quality of Musa (AAB group) 'Mysore'('Embul') Bananas". During the period from 1996 to 1999, I pursued PhD studies in Cereal Chemistry at Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne Australia. My research project was titled: "The Impact and Interaction of Enzymes during the Processing and Storage of Baked Goods". As yet I have been unable to complete this work, but I hope to continue this project at some future time.

In all, I have over thirty years of secondary-level teaching experience. Furthermore, I have been employed as a visiting lecturer at the University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Colombo Sri Lanka by the Department of Chemistry, and as a part-time lecturer at Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne Australia by the Departments of Food Chemistry and Biology.

I have been working in Federal Way School District since 1999, and at Decatur High School since 2003. I am teaching Chemistry and Physical Science during the current (2012-2013) school year.

I hold a Washington State Continuing Teacher Certificate with Chemistry, Biology and Science endorsements. During recent years I have begun steps to add a mathematics endorsement to my teaching certificate.

My wife, Nalani, is a cake decorator at Safeway's retail bakeries. Together, we have two children. My daughter, Asanka, graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering and her Masters of Science in Bioengineering both from the University of Washington in 2004 and 2005 respectively. She has completed her PhD in 2011 in this same field. My son, Udam, also graduated from University of Washington with his Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering in 2004. He works as a computer software engineer at Hewlett Packard. Udam completed his secondary studies at Decatur High School.

I love teaching and always have. I have several years of experience teaching diverse groups of students in Sri Lanka, Australia and the United States. Besides teaching, I also love to travel, both to distant countries and to nearby attractions. I am also interested in website development as a hobby and I am using my recently developed skills to build an interactive website for my students at Decatur.