Alikhan is a lecturer at the Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He graduated from the University of Colombo with first-class honors in geography, and then he did his MPhil at the Department of Geography, the University of Peradeniya. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Department of Geography, University of Colombo. Alikhan has completed his PhD at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.