Ms. Jane Stewart, Professor at the Department of Agricultural Biology, University of Colorado, USA visited the University of Kelaniya and met with Senior Professor Nilanthi de Silva, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, on the 21^st of February 2025 at the Vice-Chancellor’s office. The discussion was also attended by Prof. Renuka Attanayake and Senior Lecturer Ms. Priyangi Edirisinghe of the Department of Plant and Molecular Biology, University of Kelaniya.

This visit aimed to initiate research collaboration work with Prof. Renuka Attanayake of the University of Kelaniya and with the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka.

Ms. Stewart, is one of the very few forest pathologists in the world and has expertise in genetics, genomics and transcriptomics of plant pathogens. As part of her visit, she also conducted a guest lecture on “Genomic and Metagenomic Approaches to examine biotic and abiotic relationships in forest root diseases”, on the same day at the Seminar Room of the Department of Plant and Molecular Biology, University of Kelaniya.