Prof. Nimal Rajapakse, a civil engineering graduate of the University of Moratuwa, joined SLIIT in 2019 after serving four Canadian research universities as Department Head, Dean and Vice President (Research and International). He is currently the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost of SLIIT. He is an Emeritus Professor at Simon Fraser University, Canada, where he was a Professor from 2016 to 2019. Prof. Rajapakse also held leadership roles such as VP (Research & International) at Carleton University, Canada, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science at Simon Fraser University, and Director of ICICS at the University of British Columbia. He has served as Head of Departments at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba, where he also worked as a Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor from 1985 to 2000. His career began as a Design Engineer at CECB, Sri Lanka, and as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa.

Prof. Rajapakse has been ranked among the top 1% of researchers worldwide across all disciplines by Stanford University and is currently the highest-ranked researcher employed by Sri Lankan universities and higher educational institutes, according to the Stanford list. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Engineering Institute of Canada