Mahesh Galappaththi, PhD: Improving truffle cultivation Down Under

In the lab at Murdoch University, observing the mycorrhizae of oak roots. Image courtesy of Mahesh Galappaththi

Growing up in Sri Lanka, Mahesh Abraham Galappaththi was a keen observer of the world around him, so it was a logical progression to study it.

On completing his secondary education, Galappaththi enrolled in a Bachelor of Natural Sciences at the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). “My thesis was mainly based on factors affecting human-elephant conflict in the Tissmaharama region of Sri Lanka,” he says. “I selected that topic because elephants are seen by farmers as an agricultural pest even though they are a keystone species in Sri Lanka. I also was interested in the topic as I am a nature lover.”

After graduating with a BSc, Galappaththi undertook a Masters in Environmental Science from the Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS) at Sri Lanka’s University of Peradeniya. In addition, he worked collaboratively with scientists at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and in China, and with several other universities around the world.

His Masters thesis “successfully revealed the potential effect of edaphic factors on dieback of Manilkara hexandra, which is a pioneer tree in Sri Lanka’s Bundala National Park (a Ramsar wetland),” Galappaththi says. Academia wasn’t his only gig: “While I was doing my research, I was working as a naturalist and advanced-level biology teacher,” he adds.