Susantha Goonatilake (Sinhala: සුසන්ත ගුණතිලක) is a Sri Lankan academic, sociologist, and professor of anthropology at the University of Exeter, Columbia University, and New School for Social Research.

He was the president of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (the "RASSL"), and before that the president of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science.

After Goonatilake received electrical engineering training in the United Kingdom and Germany.

He went on to gain his MSc and PhD in industrial sociology from the University of Exeter in 1971 (Master thesis: A study of the authority structure of an industrial organisation in a transitional setting: case study of a Ceylon industrial plant) and 1973 (PhD thesis: Organisational forms in post-traditional society with special reference to South Asia) respectively.

[3][4][5] Goonatilake was a professor at the University of Exeter, Columbia University and New School for Social Research, president of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science and he was president of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2015.