Vale Professor Sisira Jayasuriya
25 March 2025
Monash Business School Professor Sisira Jayasuriya passed away last month following a battle with cancer.
Prof Jayasuriya – a globally-renowned development economist – was a much-valued colleague, scholar, mentor and friend to many.
Prof Sisira Jayasuriya was a much-valued colleague to many.
He was the Director of the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability (CDES) from 2015 to 2019, remaining as Professor of Economics until 2022, before becoming an Adjunct Professor.
Prof Jayasuriya’s initial connection to the Monash community began in 1999 with sessional teaching, amidst other opportunities that included roles at the University of Melbourne, where he was Director of the Asian Economics Centre from 2001 to 2008 and La Trobe University, where he was Professor of Macroeconomics from 2008 to 2012.
In 2012, he joined Monash University’s Department of Economics as a Professor. In 2015, he took up a leadership role in CDES after it expanded its research focus to explicitly include economic research on issues related to sustainability.
With a focus on economic policy issues in Asia, Prof Jayasuriya’s research included food security in Asia, the political economy of Sri Lanka, the economics of natural disasters, trade and macroeconomic issues in Asia, and agricultural policy reforms in Pakistan and India.
He led major research projects on Policy and Institutional Reforms to Improve Horticulture Markets in Pakistan (2016-20) and Capturing the Potential for Greenhouse Gas Offsets in Indian Agriculture (2012-14).
Prof Jayasuriya authored several books including The World Rubber Industry (2012) and The Asian Tsunami: Aid and Reconstruction after a Disaster (2010), and edited many others including: Managing Domestic and International Challenges and Opportunities in Post-conflict Development: Lessons from Sri Lanka (2019); Trade Policy Reforms and Development: Essays in Honour of Peter Lloyd (2 Volumes, 2005); and The Open Economy and the Environment: Development, Trade and Resources in Asia (2003).
Professor Sisira Jayasuria was a supervisor to
dozens of PhD students, many of whom have gone
on to prominent roles.
Prof Jayasuriya was also an Honorary Professor of Economics at the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Australian National University, as well as the Institute of Social and Economic Studies at Osaka University, Japan, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.
He held previous appointments at the International Rice Research Institute (Philippines) and was a consultant to the Asian Development Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the World Bank and several United Nations agencies including ESCAP, FAO and ILO.
Prof Jayasuriya’s industry networks and academic connections were of the highest calibre, bringing a stream of influential international policy and academic guests to Monash Business School as guests.
For instance, in 2016, he was instrumental in CDES hosting the French scholar Prof Thomas Piketty, as part of Prof Piketty's Melbourne tour which saw him speak at the Melbourne Town Hall to a packed audience.
He was also instrumental in the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI) becoming the Australia-New Zealand-Pacific Regional Hub of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) headed by Prof Jeffrey Sachs.
Prof Jayasuriya was a supervisor to dozens of PhD students, many of whom have gone on to prominent roles in academia, government and development agencies.
Prema-chandra Athukorala from the Australian National University and Sarath Rajapatirana, Advocata Institute, Colombo have shared their In Memoriam recollections:
"A final tribute to Professor Sisira Jayasuriya’s personality: He loved people and ideas, and he did so without any thoughts of private aggrandizement or personal vanity. He was a great raconteur with a fine sense of humour. A ‘man of conviction,’ he was never aggressive or incoherent, even in heated arguments; reasoned calmness was a hallmark of his character as a public intellectual. He had a vast coterie of friends across continents who appreciated this gentle soul. As much as we mourn his passing, we will also celebrate the opportunities we had to know and associate with him."