Missaka Hettiarachchi
Senior Fellow, Environment and Disaster Management Program
Missaka Hettiarachchi, a civil and environmental engineer by training, holds a Ph.D. in environmental planning and policy from The University of Queensland, Australia. He is a WWF senior fellow attached to the Environment and Disaster Management (EDM) program. He is also the lead trainer of WWF’s Flood Green Guide training program and leads EDM’s sustainable construction and building materials initiatives. Missaka has coauthored several publications for WWF, including Natural and Nature-Based Flood Risk Management: A Green Guide (2017) and Building Materials Environmental Guide—first edition (2016) and second edition (2022).
He represents WWF in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Buildings and Construction Program’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. He has worked as an environmental adviser for the UN Emergency Shelter Cluster in Haiti (2010) and the Philippines (2013) and conducted the Green Recovery and Reconstruction training in Nepal following the 2015 earthquake. He is an adjunct associate professor at James Cook University in Australia and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University.
“What inspires me most are the emerging possibilities for engaging communities and young people in the sustainable planning, construction, and operation of infrastructure and the built environment—i.e., through citizen science, participatory planning, and inclusive design. ”
More on Missaka
Title
Senior Fellow
Education
- Ph.D., Environmental Planning, The University of Queensland, Australia
- Chartered Civil Engineer, Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka
- MSc, Environmental Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Areas of Expertise
- Environmental planning and policy
- Environmental engineering
- Disaster management