| Honorific-Prefix: | Professor |
| A. Thurairajah | |
| Native Name: | அ. துரைராசா |
| Native Name Lang: | ta |
| Order1: | 2nd |
| Office1: | Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jaffna |
| Term Start1: | September 1988 |
| Term End1: | April 1994 |
| Predecessor1: | S. Vithiananthan |
| Successor1: | K. Kunaratnam |
| Birth Date: | 1934 11, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Kamparmalai, Ceylon |
| Death Place: | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Alma Mater: | Udupiddy AMC Hartley College University of Ceylon University of Cambridge |
| Profession: | Academic |
| Blank1: | Ethnicity |
| Data1: | Sri Lankan Tamil |
Alagiah Thurairajah (Tamil: அழகையா துரைராசா|translit=Aḻakaiyā Turairācā; 10 November 1934 – 11 June 1994) was a Sri Lankan academic and vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna.
Thurairajah was born on 10 November 1934 in Kamparmalai in northern Ceylon.[1] [2] He was the son of Velupillai Alagiah and Sellammah from Imaiyanan in Vadamarachchi.[1] He was educated at the Udupiddy American Mission College and Hartley College.[1] [2] After completing school he commenced studies at the University of Ceylon in July 1953, graduating with a BSc degree in civil engineering in 1957.[1] [2]
Thurairajah then served as an instructor in civil engineering at the university until March 1958 when he started working for the Public Works Department as a Junior Assistant Engineer for four months.[2] He then went to the University of Cambridge on a scholarship after Kenneth H. Roscoe chose him to be his research student.[2] Between October 1958 and December 1961 Thurairajah assisted Roscoe in his research into shear properties of soils.[1] [2] This research earned Thurairajah a PhD in June 1962 with a thesis titled Some shear properties of kaolin and of sand.[1] [2]
Thurairajah married Rajeswari.[1] They had three daughters and two sons.[1] [2] His younger son, Alahesh Thurairajah continued the Legacy of his father and earned a great reputation in geotechnical community. He is currently serving as President and Principal of a Geotechnical Firm 'Earth Mechanics, Inc.', based near Los Angeles, California.
After Cambridge Thurairajah worked in London for a company called Terreasearch Ltd for a while in 1962 before returning to Ceylon.[1] [2] He joined the University of Ceylon as a lecturer.[1] [2] He was visiting assistant professor at the University of Waterloo before becoming Professor of Civil Engineering in 1971 at the University of Ceylon.[1] [2] He was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Peradeniya Campus of the University of Sri Lanka from May 1975 to September 1977, and February 1982 to February 1985.[1] [2] [3] He was visiting professor at the University of British Columbia between October 1977 and December 1978.[1] [2] He was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Open University of Sri Lanka from April 1987 to August 1988.[1] [2]
Thurairajah became vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna in September 1988.[1] [2] [4] He resigned in March 1994 on medical grounds.[1] [2]
Thurairajah moved to Colombo for treatment and re-joined the Open University.[1] He died on 11 June 1994 in Colombo due to cardiovascular failure brought about by leukaemia.[1] [2] He was posthumously awarded the Maamanithar (Great Man) honour by the LTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.[5]
Thurairajah was a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (Sri Lanka) from 1977; Institution of Civil Engineers (Sri Lanka) from 1979; and the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) from May 1985.[1] [2] He was president of the National Academy of Sciences (Sri Lanka) in 1986.[1] He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (Sri Lanka) between October 1989 to October 1990.[2] He was an expert on soil engineering.[6]