Prof Nadarajah Sreeharan graduated MBBS from the University of Colombo with first class honours in 1970 and having completed the MD (Colombo) and the MRCP (UK), obtained a PhD in Cardiovascular Studies at the British Heart Foundation Department, University of Leeds. He returned to Sri Lanka to assume the Foundation Chair Professorship in Medicine at the University of Jaffna in 1980, where he introduced novel educational concepts into the medical curriculum, including Problem Oriented Medical Records and Objective Structural Clinical Examinations. As the Foundation Clinical Coordinator, he also facilitated the transformation of the Jaffna Provincial Hospital to the status of a Teaching Hospital.
Prof Sreeharan left Sri Lanka as a consequence of the civil strife, and after a period as Visiting Professor of Cardiology at the University of Alberta, Canada, he joined the Global R&D organisation at GlaxoSmithKline where, as Senior Vice President and European Medical Director, he chaired an integrated medical department based across the European countries with oversight for the research & development of new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas. He led teams that developed the first non-ergot selective dopamine agonist for Parkinson’s Disease (Ropinirole), the first beta blocker for Congestive Heart Failure (Carvedilol), an insulin sensitiser for Type 2 Diabetes (Rosiglitazone), a combination fluticasone/salmeterol inhaler for COPD (Seretide), an SSRI for depression/anxiety spectrum (Paroxetine), a 5 alpha reductase inhibitor for BPH (Dutasteride),and a topoisomerase inhibitor for Ovarian and Small cell Lung cancers (Topotecan).
Prof Sreeharan is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow and the American College of Physicians and has authored several publications and book chapters. Over the years, he held Visiting Professorships at several Universities in the United Kingdom and Malaysia, including Kings College, London, and the UITM Medical Faculty, Kuala Lumpur. For his work as an Officer of the Board of Examiners in Pharmaceutical Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians, an advisor to the National Board of Medical Examiners in the USA and a faculty to the Scholars in Clinical Science Program at the Harvard Medical School, he was awarded a Global Fellowship in Medicines Development.
Prof Sreeharan reconnected formally with the University of Jaffna in 2016 as honorary Visiting Professor of Medicine. He continues to involve himself in organizational development, research, and educational activities and in recognition of his enduring contributions, in May 2025 the University of Jaffna awarded him the title of Professor Emeritus.
