Professor Asoka Mendis is considered to be a world authority on comets and solar system physics. He was the research professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in the University of California, San Diego, USA.
He has the unique distinction of being the first and only Sri Lankan to advice simultaneously both American and Soviet space authorities on their space missions to investigate the Halley's Comet. What's more, this Sri Lankan born Astronomer who held American citizenship, was the first among all American scientists to be selected both by Soviet and European space programmes to be a co-investigator in their cometary missions.
One of his new theories about the Solar System has initiated a new area in physics and recently he became the first-ever Sri Lankan to be enlisted in the prestigious "Who's Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology in USA."
Needless to say, all his achievements do pride to every Sri Lankan, and to Anandians.
This former lecturer in mathematics at the University of Colombo has been residing in the United States since 1969, where he has been a principal-investigator in several space research projects of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When NASA's Voyager Spacecraft passed by the planet Saturn in early 1980's Dr. Mendis was one of the space scientists to investigate the vast amount of new information radioed back to earth. Based on that new knowledge, he formulated a new theory called the Gravito Electro Dynamics (G.E.D.) Theory, which in turn gave rise to a totally new area in Physical Sciences.