- Ph. D. Fics. Kanapathipillai Wignarajah received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Ceylon majoring in Plant Sciences and Chemistry.
- He completed his doctorate at the University of Liverpool, UK for his work in Plant Mineral Nutrition and Environmental Plant Science.
- Since obtaining his doctorate, he worked at Universities in Australia, Africa, Caribbean, Europe and USA for nearly 40 years.
- He has maintained the philosophy that optimization of plant growth must be integrated into the natural changes in the Earth’s environment.
- Further that plants, humans and the environment are complementary in nature.
- Hence a systematic approach to management of plants, humans and environment can result in a cleaner, more hospitable planet, Earth, that will benefit human civilization.
- He has worked for the past 26 years at NASA in designing and developing futuristic civilizations on other planets, particularly moon and mars.
- He serves on the Editorial Boards of journals dealing with Life Support, Plant Science and Environmental Science.
- He also is an organizer for the annual International Conference on Environmental Systems.
- He served on the committee of the American Hydroponics Society.
- During his career, he has published over 100 papers and has published a book chapter on “Mineral Nutrition of Plants”