Karunaweera is the chair, senior professor of parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and honorary visiting fellow at the School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA. Trained as a medical parasitologist she has extensive teaching and research experience in tropical diseases, with special emphases on vector-borne diseases. Elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, she is the first Sri Lankan elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a Distinguished International Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She received several research grant awards, both international and local, including Tropical Medicine Research Centre Award, by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, US. Fellowship awards received include Harvard University’s Senior Research Scholar Award (2005/6); Fulbright Advanced Research and Lecturing Award (2005). She is the founder president of Sri Lanka National Chapter of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and current president of Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists.