23 Facts About Ray Wijewardene

Deshamanya Philip Revatha Wijewardene, better known as Ray Wijewardene, was a Sri Lankan engineer, aviator, inventor, and Olympic athlete.

Ray Wijewardene was an expert on tropical agriculture and natural resource management, subjects that he created a logical system to study.

Ray Wijewardene invented devices to assist small farmers in developing countries.

Ray Wijewardene studied at CMS Ladies' College, Colombo and St Thomas' College Mount Lavinia, both private Anglican schools.

Ray Wijewardene was head of agricultural engineering at the Mechanization and Automation Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1973 to 1974.

Ray Wijewardene served as head of agricultural engineering and research at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Ray Wijewardene worked with Sri Lanka's business, research, and policy communities in his areas of expertise.

Ray Wijewardene held appointments such as Chairman of the Tea Research Board, Commissioner Sri Lanka Inventors Commission and was a member of public sector bodies concerned with agriculture, science and technology.

Ray Wijewardene was Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa.

In 1955, Ray Wijewardene designed a two-wheeled, walking tractor to help small farmers in the tropics to mechanise their work.

Ray Wijewardene promoted the tractor with farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for a decade.

Ray Wijewardene later questioned its value for poor farmers cultivating small holdings in the developing world.

Ray Wijewardene searched for natural ways to manage soil fertility and weeds.

Ray Wijewardene promoted a soil conservation technique called Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, originally developed in the Philippines.

Ray Wijewardene experimented with rain-fed farming and agroforestry methods on his coconut estate in Kakkapalliya, in Sri Lanka's Intermediate Zone.

Ray Wijewardene did field tests for dendro thermal power, the generation of electricity from firewood.

Ray Wijewardene introduced inter-cropping gliricidia with coconut, vastly increasing coconut yields.

Ray Wijewardene engaged in the water sports of rowing and sailing and represented Sri Lanka in international competitive events.

Ray Wijewardene competed in the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, and won a Silver medal at the 6th Asian Games in Bangkok in 1970.

Ray Wijewardene was a member of both the Colombo Rowing Club and the Ceylon Motor Yacht Club.

Ray Wijewardene experimented with building and flying ultralight aircraft and helicopters, and trained pilots and aircraft technicians.

In 1949 Ray Wijewardene married Seela, the daughter of Benjamin de Mel and Marjorie Perera Abeywardene.

Ray Wijewardene's cousins were Upali Wijewardene and Junius Richard Jayewardene.