Skip to main
This is Dr. Kushan Tennakoon expert profile image

Dr. Kushan Tennakoon

Senior Lecturer, Environmental Science

Campus

Berwick Campus

Biography

Dr Kushan Tennakoon is a plant eco-physiologist with research and university teaching experience in Southeast Asia, USA and Australia.

Kushan is internationally recognised for his research on the functional attributes of parasitic plants. He coordinates and teaches several undergraduate units, including Landscape Restoration and Mine Site Rehabilitation and Climate and Environmental Issues in a Changing World, and contributes to teaching in Australian Flora, Invasive Species: Ecology, Management and Challenges and Environmental Studies. 

Kushan’s current research focuses on how plants respond to environmental change, especially native flora in degraded habitats. He also works on developing propagation and agronomic practices for selected native and medicinal plants used in urban greening initiatives. Additional research includes the silviculture of economically and culturally important species such as sandalwood and agarwood. His ongoing industry-funded research projects span climate-ready revegetation, novel non-chemical weed control methods, and the agronomy of industrial hemp. 

Kushan has received numerous professional awards including the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the University of Western Australia for his doctoral studies. As a mid-career researcher, he was awarded the J. William Fulbright Senior Fellowship (USA) to pursue advanced research in plant ecophysiology and The World Academy of Sciences Young Scientist Award for Biology. 

Fields of research

  • Conservation and biodiversity
  • Plant biology not elsewhere classified
  • Environmental rehabilitation and restoration

More about Kushan

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Australia  
  • Graduate Certificate in Education (Tertiary Education), Federation University Australia
  • BSc First Class (Hons), University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka)

Areas of interest

  • Forest restoration
  • Parasitic plants and environmental weeds  
  • Native plant propagation
  • Plant ecophysiology

  • Environmental science

Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC)

Kushan is part of the Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC), which aims to develop new knowledge and innovative solutions to the grand challenges facing our natural environments.
  • Publications

Invasive Acacia mangium Leaf Litter Modifies Soil Chemical Properties of A Bornean Tropical Heath Forest: A Soil Incubation Study