Ravindra Jayaratne

My principal research interests are in the field of coastal engineering, particularly wave hydrodynamics, wave-structure interaction, sediment transport processes and disaster prevention mechanisms against storm surges, tsunamis and glacier lake outburst floods.

I carried out several post-disaster field surveys in the UK, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. I subsequently used field data to develop soft engineering solutions (e.g. management strategies, flood inundation and evacuation maps, education seminars and disaster preparedness activities through participatory-action research) and hard engineering solutions (e.g. developing predictive tools; mathematical models, numerical models and design guidelines) through numerical, mathematical and laboratory modelling of coastal defence structures under extreme wave conditions.

I have authored 125+ peer-reviewed journal, book chapters and conference articles in coastal engineering and disaster risk reduction. I have contributed to UEL's REF 2014 and REF 2021 Engineering submissions. I was the Impact Champion for UoA 12 Engineering submission in 2021. I have completed 4 PhD supervisions as Director of Studies (DoS) and am currently supervising 3 PhD students (as DoS) in coastal engineering / disaster mitigation. I co-lead UEL's Resilient Built Environment Research Group since 2021.

I have secured external research grants over £500k from NERC, the Royal Society, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Heiwa Nakajima Peace Foundation, the Royal Academy of Engineering, JSPS, Waseda, Tokyo, Kansai and Yokohama National University.

I have been a Visiting Researcher to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Michigan (2024), the Department of Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies at the University of Tokyo (2023), the Department of Urban Innovation at Yokohama National University (2018), the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Ottawa (2017), the Institute of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (2014) and the Complex Disaster Research Institute at Waseda University (since 2011).