Pulani Lanerolle PhD

Pulani Lanerolle is a Professor in Nutrition at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry with Nutrition from the University of Southampton, UK and a Ph.D. from the University of Colombo. Administrative posts held during her 20-year teaching career has enabled her to initiate, implement and evaluate nutrition teaching programs for undergraduate and postgraduate students of medicine, nutrition, and biochemistry.

She serves on the Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) subgroup on diet and health of the World Health Organization and on national committees of the Ministry of Health, working on nutrition-related guidelines, policy and strategies in the areas of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCD), child nutrition, diet, and physical activity.

Her research interests are in the areas of NCD related nutrition, dietary patterns, portions size estimation, longitudinal body composition in infants, energy expenditure through stable isotopes, micronutrient deficiency and food security resulting in publications in peer-reviewed journals, commissioned reports and publications for the World Health Organization, World Bank, Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF) and UNHABITAT, and the Ministry of Health.