Dr Chethana Illankoon
Senior Lecturer
- PhD in Engineering (Australia)
- BSc (Honours) in Quantity Surveying - First Class
Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of Built Environment
Dr Chethana Illankoon is a Scientia Senior Lecturer at School of Built Environment. Chethana focuses on life-cycle cost and carbon emission optimisation for green buildings. Her research focus is mainly on green buildings, life-cycle analysis, sustainable construction and circular economy. Prior joining UNSW she worked at University of Newcastle. She worked as a researcher at the University of Hong Kong engaging in many research projects. She has published a book, many scholarly articles in high impact refereed journals, refereed book chapters and refereed conference papers in leading conferences. Dr. Chethana has also received two awards from major conferences in Australia and New Zealand. She is also working as an Associate Editor to International Journal of Construction Management.
As an academic she has undertaken teaching in a wide range of subjects in Quantity Surveying/Construction Management cohort. She has worked in the industry as a Quantity Surveyor in Middle-East attached to many iconic projects.
E-mail
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- Frontiers Seed funding – Royal Academy of Engineering – UK
Project title: A Maturity Assessment Tool for Advancing Low-Cost Housing Towards Net-Zero (MAT-NZ)
Total Amount: $38,000
Investigators: Dr Chethana Illankoon (UNSW – Co-CI), Dr Amalka Nawaratna (University of West of England), Dr Alireza Moghayedi (University of West of England), Maxine Chan (University of Melbourne)
Scientia Fellowship (UNSW)
Total Amount: $200,000 ($50,000 p.a. for 4 years 2022 - 2026)
Investigator: Dr Chethana Illankoon (Individual funding)
Paramatta City Council Funding
Project Title: Smart Waterways: Fit-for-Purpose Water Quality Monitoring for The City of Parramatta
Total Amount: $42,153
Investigators: Dr Kefeng Zhang (Lead CI), Pro Rita Henderson (Co-CI), Dr Helen Rutlidge (Co-CI), Dr Chethana Illankoon (Co-CI)
SmartCrete CRC
Project title: Development of eco‐friendly concrete using industrial by products
Total Amount: $382,000
Investigators: A/Prof Patrick Tang (University of Newcastle, Australia – Lead CI), Chethana Illankoon (Co-CI) and Industry Partners
Research Infrastructure Scheme: Supporting Collaborative Research –
Project title: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for demolition phase of office buildings
Total Amount: $8,000 (Individual funding)
Investigator: Dr Chethana Illankoon (Individual funding)
New Staff Grant – $10,000
University of Newcastle
- Outstanding Paper Award -The 30th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate organized by the Chinese Research Institute on Construction Management (CRIOCM) conference held in Hangzhou, China November 2025
- 2024 Award for Outstanding Achievement in research -Art Design and Architecture Faculty awards (UNSW) as a member of High Performance Architecture team
- Best track paper on “Sustainability, Green Systems and Energy” -3rd Australian International conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations and Management (IEOM) -2024.
- Highly Commended, Field Laboratory Research Award -Sustainable Developments, RISE (Research, Innovation, Sustainability, Enterprise) 2021 Awards organised by the Leeds Sustainability Institute and the Technological University Dublin
-
Best paper award for the paper presented at the International Conference on Innovation Production and Construction (IPC) in 2017 organized by the Australasian Joint Research Centre for Building Information Modelling (BIM)
- Highly commended post-graduate research student award for the paper presented at the 20th Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors’ Congress in 2016 organized by the New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NZIQS)
- Nominated for Teaching Excellence Awards – 2020 at University of Newcastle
- Awarded with Discovery postgraduate research award in 2015 to pursue the Phd
- Professor H.P.S. Caldera Memorial Award for the graduand who has obtained the highest marks for the dissertation at the final year BSc. (Hons) in Quantity Surveying degree in 2012, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
- The most outstanding Graduand of the year 2012 -Nominated for the Vidya Jyothi Professor Dayantha S Wijeyesekera award for the most outstanding Graduand of the year 2012, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
- 3MT Presentation – 2016 and 2017 -One of the finalists in 3MT presentation in School of Computing Engineering and Mathematics of Western Sydney University, in 2016 and 2017 consecutively
- University Sports Colours – 2010 and 2011 -Awarded university colours insignia for Carrom (Women) team of University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka consecutively in the year 2010 and 2011
- Life cycle cost optimization for Green buidlings
- Sustainable construction
- Carbon emission analysis / Embodied Carbon
- Circular economy
My Research Supervision
- Co-Supervision (External)
- Development of a dynamic green buidlng model (External PhD Candidate)
- A Whole Life Cycle Tool to Evaluate Environmental Impacts (EIs) in Sri Lankan condominium propoertues (External PhD Candidate)