IEEE Newsletter - University of Peradeniya Volume 2 (March 2019) | Page 17

07) What were your personal
experiences as a Ph.D. student?
Anything interesting?
As a Ph.D. student the biggest challenge I
had in that country was their main
language being Swedish. Even though they
allowed us to study in English, when you go
to the society, almost no one likes to speak
English. Everybody prefers to speak in
Swedish. Apart from that, they were quite
nice people and the biggest experience I
got is from the way that they work. If you
just watch them, you feel like they're not
doing any work. They come to work at 9:30
am and leave at 3:00 pm. But during that
me period, they do things very effec vely.
Even those days, there were 16 professors
with about 70 Ph.D. students in one 4
storied building and there was one
secretary handling all of them and she was
above 60 years! That is a good example as
to why I don't believe when people say that
they do not have enough staff or they do
not have enough buildings to do things.
08)
What sparked your interest in
Nanotechnology? How would you
describe your potential in that particular
field and what you are involved in right
now?
When I returned from my PhD In 2006, I
was the 9th PhD in the department. Our
department wanted to start a research
collabora on with a Japanese University.
Accordingly I was sent for 3 months to
work in one of their labs. I went to Kyushu
Ints tute of Technology, Department of Life
Science and System Engineering. I got a
small project to develop what is called
'Ac ve Polymers'. That was totally
different to me since I was doing
Distributed Control Systems. This par cular
material works as a sensor and also as an
actuator, and I had to develop the material.
The idea is when you apply an electric
poten al, it actuates and also if you bend
the material, it generates electricity. A er
about one month's effort, I found a method and developed a
demonstra on kit to highlight its func onality.
A er returning here, I was invited to do a presenta on
at the techno conference in 2007. I did the presenta on in front of
the Minister of Science and Technology, Ministrial Secretaries and
other high ranked officers. Amongst them was the Chairperson of
the Na onal Science Founda on. I demonstrated the opera on of
the ac ve polymer with the real material in hand. Many did like it
and the chairperson asked me to join for the se ng up of the
nanotechnology ins tute.
There were five of us and we were the first senior
scien sts of the Sri Lanka Ins tute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC)
which was a 50:50 public private partnership. During that me I
was handling 5 projects in five different areas. We were developing
a wearable patch to detect ECG 24*7 and we completed that. That
proceeded for the cosme cs, drugs and devices authority's
approval a er clinical trials.
I also invented a process to develop Carbon nanotubes
out of Ceylon vein graphite which is unique for Sri Lanka for which
we got a US patent. That was the first patent from the SLINTEC as
well. We got another US patent for developing a slow releasing
fer lizer. That was the first patent from the Slintech as well.
09)
Can you give us an insight into the latest research areas
based on Nanotechnology?
One is photovoltaic area and the other areas are energy storage
where the supercapacitors are there. Supercapacitors became small
thanks to nanotechnology. Instead of charge carrying conductors, if
you insert nano structured conductors, then that will increase the
area dras cally. It is mainly the energy area that I am familiar with
but there are sectors like medical, nanorobots etc.
IEEE Newsletter University of Peradeniya
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