Stephen Lissenburgh

Stephen Peter Lissenburgh also known as Steve Lissenburgh (30 April 1964 – 26 December 2004) was a British policy researcher, economist, school teacher, and social scientist. He was married to Sri Lankan-born economist Sonali Deraniyagala. He was one of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which claimed the lives of an estimated 230,000 across multiple countries.

Biography He was brought up in East End of London, an area in London. He attended the Little Ilford School for his primary level education in Manor Park, London. He studied Economics at Girton College, Cambridge which was one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. He gained reputation of being a clever student during his time studying at the Girton College and he coincidentally met his future wife in Sonali Deraniyagala.

He did not eventually begin his career in the field of policy research until the age of 30. He entered the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in the level of junior research grade in 1994 at the age of 30. He quickly rose to prominence as the head of a large research group and up until his untimely demise, he served as a key figure playing a pivotal and instrumental role in policy evaluations in the field of labour market disadvantage.

He was known for his people management skills and social skills where he displayed his potential to the core by facilitating to co-ordinate about nine co-authors in a complex project proposal on the Government's New Deal during the timeframe 2000–2001. The study was successfully published in 2001 as New Deal for Young People: National Survey of Participants, Stage 2. Sri Lanka was their usual winter holiday location, and on a fateful day, he and his family visited the country coinciding with the unprecedented 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami during the latter part of December. It was at Yala National Park that Steve, his children, and Sonali's parents all died when the tsunami hit the said location on Boxing Day 2004. Stephen Lissenburgh was 40 at the time of his death. The tragedy was later recounted in Sonali Deraniyagala's critically acclaimed memoir, Wave (2013), which details the events of the tsunami and its aftermath.