Mr. Harsha Ratnaweera was employed as the Director of International Projects and Innovation at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) 1991-2012, where he initiated and led NIVA’s commercialization of research results. He has a Dr. Ing. degree in Civil Engineering (1992) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, and a MSc (Hons) Chemical Engineering (1987) from the National Technical University of Ukraine KPI, Ukraine.

Ratnaweera is the Norwegian representative in the Council of the European Water Association and a member of the Management Committee (MC) of the International Water Association – IWA Specialist Group “Particle Separation”. He has been a member of the Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO and serves as the Chairman and a Board Member in several water and environment related organisations in Norway.

He has worked as an advisor/consultant to the World Bank, UNECE, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORAD and SIDA. He has worked in many countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe and fluent in English, Norwegian and Russian languages.