Dr. Cyril Andrew Ponnamperuma (Sinhala: ආචාර්ය සිරිල් ඇන්ඩෘ පොන්නම්පෙරුම) (16 October 1923 – 20 December 1994) was a Sri Lankan scientist in the fields of chemical evolution and the origin of life.

[2] Later he moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled at Birkbeck, University of London, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1959.

Afterwards he proceeded to the United States, where in 1962 he received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of the Nobel Laureate Melvin Calvin.

His studies focused mainly towards the origin of life, but only after he was selected for the analysis of the Moon dust in the 'Apollo Programme' his name and photo appeared on the cover-pages of world class newspapers and magazines such as Time and Newsweek.

After that, in his endeavour to widen the horizon of knowledge of the fellow human beings the distinguished academic apex he selected was University of Maryland in the US.

In recognition of his service to Sri Lanka, he was conferred, "The Honour of Vidya Jyothy" at the 1990 National Day investiture ceremony by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.