Janaki Priyanwada Premaratne obtained B. Sc (Special) in Physics with Second Class Honours Upper Division from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1977.
She was awarded the Colombo Plan scholarship in 1983 for postgraduate studies. She received M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia in 1988.
She held a Visiting Researcher position in the Engineering Acoustics Division of the Lund University, Sweden from 01 Sep. 2000 to 31 July 2001.
She also served as a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, Canada, from 31 Jan. 2008 to 31 Jan. 2009. Then she served as a Visiting Researcher at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, University of Western Ontario, Canada, from 01 Feb. 2009 to 31 May 2009.
She joined the Sub-Department of Physics of the Department of Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Moratuwa as an Assistant Lecturer on 10 Oct. 1979. She has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa since Oct. 2001.
She is a past pupil of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo.