Emeritus Professor Sunanda Mahendra had his early education in Dharmaraja College Kandy and Ananda College Colombo. Then he entered Vidyalankara University for his BA degree. His maiden novel ‘Hewaneli Eda Minissu’ (men with crooked shadows), in 1964 fetched him the State Literary Award for the best novel at the tender age of 26. In 1965 he translated Ibsen’s ‘Heddar Gabler’ as ‘Geheniyak’ to Sinhala and staged it. By this time, he was engaged in teaching at the University of Lanka and later became a programme producer in Radio Ceylon. He became Ceylone’s representative to the BBC Sinhala Service on a scholarship. He obtained his MPhil and PhD from University of London in United Kingdom. Then he joined the staff of the university of Kelaniya as a pioneering lecturer in the department of Mass Communication along with Professor Wimal Disanayaka. He was a visiting fellow in Mass communication attached to the University of Leicester, UK, and presently holds the emeritus professorship at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. His outstanding contribution to his expertise field of Mass Communication made him the recipient of the covetous UNESCO Copernicus award for Social Sciences in 1983.