Dr. Sepani Senaratne joined Construction Management team in the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment at Western Sydney University in December 2012. She is an Associate Professor in Construction Management. She served as the Director of Academic Programs for Construction Management for 4 years between Jan 2020 to Dec 2023. Sepani is actively working in the leadership team at the research Centre for Smart Modern Construction (c4SMC) as the Deputy Director Research. A/Prof. Senaratne is also a member of WSU Professoriate Leadership Group in its executive team. She is a joint-coordinator of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) task group TG124 on “Net Zero Carbon Building Design and Construction Practices”. She is also a member of the WSU Urban Transformations Research Centre.

Dr Senaratne has diverse academic experience in quantity surveying, construction and project management disciplines. She is an active researcher and has widely published in leading journals and conferences in the Built Environment as evident in her Google Scholar profile. Her work is internationally recognised by several research awards such as Outstanding Paper in the 2022 Emerald Literati Awards; Emerald Outstanding Reviewer Award 2016; Several Best Paper Awards at leading conferences; Emerald Awards of Excellence’ for Highly Commended Paper in 2019 and several Outstanding Research Performances Awards at UoM. She is actively serving the academic community as a paper reviewer, postgraduate thesis examiner and member of conference committees.

Prior to WSU, Dr Senaratne was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Building Economics and also the Director of Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Architecture at University of Moratuwa (UoM), Sri Lanka. She started her academic career in 1999, immediately after obtaining a first-class degree in B.Sc. (honours) in Quantity Surveying from UoM, Sri Lanka. She obtained her PhD from the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, United Kingdom in 2005, highest rated research institute in the UK at the time.

Dr Senaratne’s main research contribution is on project and knowledge management. In parallel, she engages in industry-focused team research at the c4SMC with renowned research on digital and sustainable construction. Further, she collaborates with engineering colleagues to offer cost-effective engineering research solutions, resulting in significant impacts. She has also engaged in interdisciplinary research in promoting women in STEM. Further, she had successfully engaged with CM researchers at University of Moratuwa with her long-established links to promote collaborative research. Currently, she leads some global research initiatives on net zero carbon and circular economy in construction and supervising eight PhD students.