Wijaya Godakumbura

Wijaya Godakumbura is the President of the Safe bottle lamp Foundation and was formerly a surgeon in Sri Lanka.

Wijaya Godakumbura
Born	Pelmadulla Ratnapura District Sri Lanka
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Education	Pelmadulla Central College Pelmadulla Nalanda College Colombo Ceylon Medical College
Known for	Surgeon Founder of Safe bottle lamp Foundation
Title	Vidya Jyothi

Early life

Godakumbura was born in Pelmadulla in Ratnapura District. He passed his advanced level with high marks in 1959 from Nalanda College Colombo and entered Ceylon Medical College to study medicine. In 1964 he completed Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and passed out as a doctor. while at Nalanda, Godakumbura excelled in sport such as athletic and football.

Career

Later in 1970s he went to United Kingdom for further studies and training. After being specialized in the treatment of Burns, Godakumbura returned to Sri Lanka and worked as a surgeon in many hospitals.

Invention of Safe Bottle Lamp

After seeing and treating many patients who had burn injuries due to unsafe kerosine bottle lamps he developed the Safe Bottle Lamp in 1992. He established the Safe bottle lamp foundation in 1998 after winning the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.

Then in 2009 his development won the first place in The World Challenge competition held in The Hague Netherlands.

Further reading

• "Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura - National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka". Lindbergh Foundation. 2012.

• "Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura and the Wonderful Lamp". Sri Lanka Guardian. September 22, 2010.

• "World Challenge - five years on". bbc.co.uk. 2009-10-09.

• "Sri Lanka's Safe Bottle Lamp Project Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura". island.lk. 2002-04-06.

• "Dr Wijaya Godakumbura". luxury travel stories. Oct 12, 2011.

• "Godakumbura addresses World Scholars' Leadership Symposium". www.ft.lk. September 20, 2011.

• "Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura - Rolex Laureate, President, Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation, Sri Lanka". fot.hct.ac.ae. 2011.

• "4th Festival of Thinkers, Abu-Dhabi". Sunday Observer. 2011-12-18.

• "Safe Bottle Lamp Project wins at World Challenge competition". Business Today. January 2010.

• "Delmege supports Safe Bottle Lamp project". Sunday Observer. 2010-09-26.

• "Lankan Surgeon to address international conference". Daily News. 2008-10-03.

• "WHO invites Sri Lankan surgeon for two consultations". Daily News. 2007-06-16.

• "Malima – New Directions in Innovation: Episode 1". nalakagunawardene.com. 12 January 2012.