Background
Tharindu Wickramaarachchi is a health economics modeller based in Melbourne. His research interests are modeling infectious disease transmission, and economic modeling of newborn, maternal and adolescent health programs. Prior to joining Burnet Institute, his work mainly focused on modelling of vector-borne diseases, particularly dengue virus transmission in Sri Lanka.
Tharindu has a background in applied mathematics with expertise in non-linear differential equations, mathematical formulation of real-world systems, and uncertainty quantification in multi-factor-driven systems and computing. He has a strong interest in applying his quantitative and modelling skills to solve problems in public health and to support evidence-based decision-making in Australia, Asia-Pacific and beyond. He has already collaborated to support resource allocation decision making in family planning, maternal health, adolescent health and child nutrition for countries such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia and the Philippines.
Tharindu also has experience in working collaboratively in multidisciplinary research groups within Burnet as well as with external organisations such as UNFPA and the World Bank.
Qualifications
- PhD in Mathematical Modeling, University of Colombo, 2015
- BSc Hons, First Class, Mathematical Finance, University of Colombo, 2011
Positions
- Mathematical Modeller in Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia, 2020 to present
- Lecturer in Mathematics, The Open University of Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2015 to 2020
- Research Assistant in Mathematical Modeling, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2012 to 2015
- Software Quality Assurance Engineer, Virtusa PVT Ltd, 2011 to 2012