Uwin Ariyarathna is a PhD student in Finance at the University of Oklahoma’s Michael F. Price College of Business. His research focuses on empirical asset pricing, especially how textual information and investor sentiment shape the equity risk premium, using machine learning and large-scale data. Before beginning his PhD, Uwin was a Lecturer in the Department of Business Finance at the University of Peradeniya, where he received the 2022 Teaching Excellence Award, ranked highest in both student and peer evaluations, and secured four research grants. He earned a BSc in Finance with First Class Honours (GPA 3.95/4.00) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, receiving best and most outstanding student distinctions; an MSc in Applied Finance (GPA 3.94/4.00—the highest since the program’s inception); and an MSc in Finance & Accounting at Imperial College London as a Commonwealth Scholar funded by the UK government. He also represented Commonwealth Scholars at the UK Parliament (APPG), joined the global elective “Corporate Finance for Practitioners” in Singapore, and achieved a world rank of 6th in the CIMA-UK Financial Operations examination.
A committed athlete, Uwin captained the Kingswood College, Kandy, and University of Sri Jayewardenepura rugby teams, is a Sri Lankan university coloursman in both rugby and wrestling, served as vice-captain of the Sri Lanka University Rugby Team at the World University Rugby Championship 2018 in Namibia where the team ranked eighth globally, and is a former inter-university wrestling and a powerlifting champion.
The University of Oklahoma Michael F. Price College of Business has experienced significant growth over the past five years, becoming OU’s second-largest college with over 7,000 students. The college offers highly ranked undergraduate, master’s, executive and doctoral programs across six academic divisions. More information is available at price.ou.edu
