DrAnnista Wijayanayake

Annista Wijayanayake is a Lecturer in the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics at the Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University. Prior to joining Deakin, she served as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and a Sessional Lecturer at Monash University. Additionally, she held the position of Professor in Operations Research in the Department of Industrial Management at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, where she played a pivotal role as the founding Senior Academic Advisor for the B.Sc. in Management and Information Technology degree program.

Annista holds a First-Class Honours Degree in B.Sc. specializing in Industrial Management from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She completed her Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Doctor of Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. She has also served as an Honorary Research Fellow at RMIT University, enhancing her global academic footprint. With over 25 years of academic experience across universities in Australia, Sri Lanka, and Japan, Annista has demonstrated expertise in Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Data Analytics, and Supply Chain Management. Her dedication to teaching has been recognized with the prestigious “Teaching Excellence Award” at Monash University in 2019 and 2024.

Annista has contributed significantly to academic leadership and innovation. She served as the Chief Grant Coordinator for the World Bank-funded “Quality and Innovation Grant,” which aimed to elevate the quality of undergraduate study programs in Sri Lanka. Also, she is a  certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for Manufacturing and she has shown expertise in process improvement, particularly in manufacturing contexts.

Her academic contributions include serving as an editor and track chair at numerous Scopus-indexed international conferences. Annista’s research interests span Optimization, Decision Science, Predictive Analytics, Mathematical Modelling, Management Science, Supply Chain Analytics, Risk Management, Logistics, and Transportation. Her work bridges theoretical advancements and practical applications, driving innovative solutions to complex challenges in these domains.