Sri Lankan marine biologist Asha de Vos has won an award for professional achievement at the British Council’s first ever Global Alumni Awards.

Asha is one of three outstanding winners of the Study UK Alumni Awards, chosen from among 62 finalists and 21 regional winners.

The winners are all alumni of UK universities, representing three countries and four UK higher education institutions.

Asha is a marine biologist who is passionate about conserving the world’s oceans, and blue whale research in the Northern Indian Ocean.

She is the founder of Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organisation, Oceanswell, which works to change the trajectory of the world’s oceans by empowering and inspiring people to be custodians of the oceans.

Asha studied for her BSc in Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of St Andrews, and her MSc in Integrative Biosciences at the University of Oxford, and is the first Sri Lankan to have a PhD in marine mammal research.

Her work has been showcased internationally by Channel 7 Australia, the BBC, the New York Times, CNN, WIRED UK, the New Scientist, TED, Grist, GOOD, Nature and National Geographic.  

“Without the experiences I had in the UK, I would not have been able to forge the career I have today,” she said, having won the award.