RIP BRENDON GOONERATNE – by Upali Obeyesekere

Brendon Gooneratne (born 28 March 1938) is a Sri Lankan scholar and physician. He was married to Yasmine Gooneratne (nee Dias Bandaranaike), a Sri Lankan poet, short story writer, university professor and essayist.

He has authored several books and publications.Educated at Royal College Colombo, Gooneratne gained his MBBS(Hons) from the University of Ceylon, Colombo and went on to gain a DAPE from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a PhD from the University of London. He was the first Sri Lankan to be awarded the Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research. After practicing as a physician in the Ceylon Medical Service, he joined the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in 1965 as a Senior Lecturer and in 1971 became the head of the Department of Parasitology. He is the President of Project Jonah.

She is recognised in Sri Lanka, Australia and throughout Europe and the U.S.A., due to her substantial creative and critical publications in the field of English and post-colonial literature. Currently, she resides in Sri Lanka.

Gooneratne was educated at the University of Ceylon and Cambridge University. She is an Emeritus Professor, having held a personal chair in English as a Professor at Macquarie University which is situated in Sydney, New South Wales.[5][6]

Yasmine Gooneratne was awarded Australia’s highest national honour, The Order Of Australia, in 1990, for her services to education and literature.