Dr. Kottearachchi graduated in 1993 obtaining a BSc (Agriculture) degree with second Class Upper Division (Honors) from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. In 1995 she was awarded the Presidential scholarship by his Excellency the President of Sri Lanka for MSc study. She obtained MSc in Molecular genetics-genetic engineering from, Mahidol University, Thailand and her thesis was involved in "Transgenic tobacco with the replicase gene of papaya ring spot virus". In 2001, she was absorbed to the academic staff of the Department of Biotechnology at Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, where she presently holds the position of Senior Lecturer. In 2008 she received PhD degree from the Graduate school of Iwate University, Japan and the Doctorate research was involved in "Gene and QTL mapping in wheat". She received the Academic Excellence Award 2007 from the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo for her PhD study. She was awarded the Commonwealth Academic Fellowship and completed the fellowship as Post Doctoral Research Associate in Bangor University, United Kingdom. She was holding the Head of the Department of Biotechnology position from 2008 to 2011. Presently, she has been involving with research in the area of plant genomics and serving as a Principal Investigator for several National and University level research grants dealing with gene/QTL mapping and Marker Assisted Selection in rice and papaya.

Gene/QTL mapping, plant tissue culture, transgenic plants