Chesmal Siriwardhana

Chesmal Siriwardhana was an Associate Professor in Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Born on June 6, 1978, in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka, he died in a traffic incident in London, UK, on April 9, 2017. The Lancet published an Obituary in May 2017. Each year, LSHTM hosts a memorial lecture in his name.

He was a medical doctor by training and completed his PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the Anglia Ruskin University, UK, where he founded the Global Public Health, Migration & Ethics Research Group (www.globalhme.org). Chesmal's research interests included global mental health, migration health, psychiatric epidemiology, enhancing primary care, resilience research and humanitarian research ethics. He conducted mental health research in low- and middle-income countries including Sri Lanka and led international collaborative research projects across countries in South Asia, South East Asia, Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe.