Prof. Ravindra Fernando was appointed as the Chairman of National Dangerous Drugs Control Board effective from yesterday.

The appointment was made by the Secretary of Law and Order Ministry Jagath Wijeweera.

Fernando, a Senior   Professor   of   Forensic   Medicine   and   Toxicology at Faculty of Medicine, University  of Colombo, is a past pupil of Ananda College, Colombo.

He was instrumental in setting up the National Poisons Information Centre in the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, in 1988 (the first in South East Asia) and was its head from its inception for 20 years. He was a member of the INTOX program of the International Programme of Chemical Safety (ILO-UNEP-WHO) to prepare a computerized database on poisons, since its inception in 1988. He is a member of the WHO expert group on "Vector Biology and Control." He is a Member of the senior advisory board to South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration (SACTRC).

He has published papers in his own field and is the author of 12 books on subjects varying from Pesticide poisoning to international relations, the best known works being 'A Murder in Ceylon: The Sathasivam Case', an account of the 57-day trial of this landmark case in the history of law and forensic medicine in Sri Lanka, and 'Sri Lanka LTTE and the British Parliament'.

Prof. Fernando also served as the President of Sri Lanka Medical Council.