Alumni Profile
 Dr. Indira Samarasekera

Mechanical Engineering '76

Indira Samarasekera, who received her master's degree in mechanical engineering at UC Davis, is the first female president of the University of Alberta, Canada. Prior to assuming that office on July 1, 2005, Samaresekera served as the vice president of research at the University of British Columbia.

Samarasekera is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum. She has received numerous other honors, including the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the British Columbia Science Council New Frontiers in Research Award, the Dofasco Award, the Golden Jubilee Medal, the UBC Killiam Research Prize and ten best paper awards with coworkers.

Samarasekera received her Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1980. She studied at UC Davis under the supervision of Professor Zuhair A. Munir after earning her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Ceylon in 1974.

"I came to UC Davis from a culture in Sri Lanka where one was not always encouraged to challenge conventional wisdom. I was quickly immersed in a strong and vibrant research environment where I learned never to take anything for granted and to always challenge conventional wisdom in order to improve our knowledge and our society."