Professor Sujeewa Amarasena, Vice Chancellor of University of Ruhuna, graduated from the same University with MBBS with Second Class Honors (Upper division) in and a Distinction in Paediatrics winning the C. R. De Silva Gold Medal for Paediatrics in 1985. He completed his MD in Paediatrics in 1990 and joined the Academic staff of the Alma mater. Over the next few years he underwent further training in his chosen field of Paediatrics in Monash Medical Centre. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and later in Royal Alexandra Hospital for children at Camperdown, Sydney, NSW. He subspecialized in Neonatology and returned to Sri Lanka in 1994 with vast experience in Neonatal intensive care including new born emergency transport. With this experience he was able to pioneer the establishment of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at teaching hospital Karapitiya which functions smoothly even today.

He was appointed as Head of the Department of Paediatrics in 1999 which post he held until 2009 for a continuous period of 10 years during which time he served as a member of the University Senate as well. He is a member of the University Senate for more than 20 years.

He also functioned as a member of numerous committees of the Faculty of Medicine UOR and contributed immensely to development of the FOM. To name a few this includes Curriculum development and evaluation committee as a member and a convener,clinical coordinator for clinical training, library committee, ethics committee,Canteen and Auditorium committee. Work in these committees directly influenced the quality of medical education and learning environment of students. He also functioned as a student counsellor and worked for student wellbeing in this role.

He had further training in medical education in University of Dundee and in addition to the local training on teacher training. He is a certified instructor in Advanced Paediatric Life Support, Neonatal Life Support, and Advanced Trauma Life Support. The instructor status is internationally accredited. Despite busy schedule as an administrator he continues to teach both the undergraduates and postgraduates. 

He has been a member of the Board of Study in Paediatrics since 1994 and was appointed as the   Chairperson of the Board in PGIM from June 2018 to date. He has been an examiner for MD and DCH examinations in Paediatrics and emergency medicine of the PGIM.

He functioned as the Founder Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawela Defence University which was established in 2009. The entire development of this FOM was overseen by him. This included planning of the Infrastructure, and monitoring the development of infrastructure, development of curricula, planning clinical training, liaison with different agencies such Ministry of Health, UGC, Attorney Generals department, Different hospitals and the directors and teaching staff, writing up project proposals to the ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health, and funding agencies, overseeing recruitment of staff. All these were achieved within a very short period.

Prof Sujeewa Amarasena took a keen interest in developing higher education opportunities for nursing and allied health fields from 1997. Staring from Diploma in Human Lactation Management in 2002 and then going on to initiate degree programmes for Nursing, MLS and Pharmacy in FOM UOR. Later this became a separate allied health faculty. He was the Founder Dean of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences UOR from 2017 up to 2019. In March 2019 he was appointed as Vice Chancellor of UOR.

His research includes neonatology. Medical education, Child abuse and Neglect, neonatal screening for congenital hypothyroidism and has published and presented many papers at national and international conferences. He won Presidential awards for research in 2015 and NRC merit awards for research.

He also functions as an advisory committee member of the many technical committees of the Ministry of Health such as Technical committee on newborn and Family health, Technical committee on maternal and child health, Breast milk code monitoring committee. These committees contribute immensely to policy development of the Ministry of Health. He also functions as a member of the ACCD (Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases) He also functioned as a member of the Technical Advisory Group for Regional Director of WHO on Maternal and Newborn health for the South East Asian Region (SEAR) for three years from 2016 to 2019 and currently serving the verification committee for elimination of Measles, Rubella and Congenital Rubella syndrome in the SEAR region.

He was the Founder secretary in 2000/2001/2002 and President of the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka in 2007 and President of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians in 2014/2015.

For his contribution to children, peace and human rights he was awarded One of the TEN OUTSTANDING YOUNG PERSONS (TOYP) award in 1999. Recently he was awarded the once in life time award for his contribution towards improvements in perinatal care in Sri Lanka by the PSSL.