RTSSC
Staff Bio

Heshani Manaweera Wickramage is a post-doctoral research fellow in rural road safety at North Dakota State University's Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degrees in Applied Economics and Chemistry from Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted research on the impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the performance of seafood exporting firms in Sri Lanka, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Prior to her graduate studies, Heshani joined the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), where she worked on the national action plan project "Bridging the Climate Information & Communication Gaps for Effective Adaptation Decisions." Her role as a project officer involved designing and conducting research to understand the behavioral psychology of Sri Lankan farmers regarding new technology-based prediction systems.

She earned a master's degree in Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University (NDSU), focusing her research on applying bankruptcy models to Missouri River Water Allocation. She also earned a Ph.D. in Transportation and Supply Chain from NDSU. Her doctoral dissertation, "Environmental Risk Analysis of Hazardous Materials Transportation," involved laboratory experiments, advanced mapping techniques, statistical analysis, and programming. She has experience in data mining, statistical modeling, spatial analysis, accident analysis, transportation planning, and technical writing. Additionally, she has taught courses such as Introduction to Transportation and Logistics and Quantitative Methods & Decision-Making at NDSU, alongside mentoring students as an instructor and teaching assistant.

Research Interests

• Transportation Safety
• Transportation Economics
• Geospatial Transportation Safety Analysis
• Geospatial Transportation Modeling
• Risk Assessment
• Hazardous Materials Transportation
• Sustainable Transportation
• Human Factors and Behavior in Transportation Safety

Recent Research Activities/Major Programs of Activity

• Environmental Risk Analysis of Hazardous Materials (HAZMATs) Transportation
• Geospatial Transportation Safety Analysis
• Leveraging Geoinformatics to Determine Carbon Sequestration Potential of Brine Impacted Soils
• Bridging the Climate Information and Communication Gaps for Effective Adaptation Decisions: An Integrated Climate Information Management System
• Bankruptcy Model Application to Missouri River Water Allocation
• ESRI Dashboard Development for Management and Utilization of the North Dakota Grain Movement Data

Employment

• Aug 2024 - present, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Rural Road Safety, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, NDSU, Fargo, ND
• Aug 2019 – May 2024, Doctoral Graduate Research Assistant, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI), NDSU, Fargo, ND
• Aug 2021 – Dec 2021, Primary Course Instructor, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, NDSU, Fargo, ND
• Aug 2018 – Dec 2018, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, NDSU, Fargo, ND
• Aug 2017 – Aug 2019, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, NDSU, Fargo, ND
• May 2016 – Aug 2017, Project Officer, Environmental and Agricultural Economic Unit, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), Colombo 07, Sri Lanka
• Oct 2015 – Feb 2016, Management Trainee, HJS Condiments Limited, Biyagama Export Processing Zone, Biyagama, Sri Lanka

Education

• Ph.D., Transportation and Supply Chain, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, 2024
• MS, Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, 2019
• B.Sc. (Honors), Agriculture (Major in Agribusiness Management and Applied Economics), Faculty of Agriculture and Plantation Management, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, Mankadura, Sri Lanka, 2016
• B.Sc. (Honors), Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka, 2014