Student from the Faculty of Science becomes first in the island in a research competition and wins Gold Medal

A student from the Faculty of Science, Mr. Chinthaka Tennakoon, became first in the island in a research competition and won Gold Medal. Sri Lankan section of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), UK conducted this island-wide inter-university research competition among final year Chemistry special degree students from all Sri Lankan universities. In an awarding ceremony held in Colombo on November 12, 2021, he got the Gold Medal from Professor Sudantha Liyanage, the former Chairman of the RSC Sri Lankan section and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The ceremony was presided by Dr. Poobalasuntharam Iynkaran, the Chairman of the RSC – Sri Lankan section and Head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Jaffna.

This research work is a part of the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development – Development Oriented Research (AHEAD-DOR) project funded by the World Bank and administered by the Ministry of Higher Education. His research work was supervised by the Co-ordinator and the Principal Investigator of the AHEAD-DOR project, Professor Kandasamy Vignarooban of the Department of Physics jointly with Professor Kugamoorthy Velauthamurty and Dr. Ganeshalingam Sashikesh of the Department of Chemistry. Mr. Chinthaka’s research work was on synthesis, characterization and application of natural-resin based biopolymer electrolytes for sodium-ion rechargeable batteries, which was carried out in Physics and Chemistry laboratories of the Faculty of Science.