Two graduate teaching assistants of the College of Chemical Sciences, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, managed to make their alma mater proud by securing places at the Inter-University Research Presentation Competition organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry – Sri Lanka Section. Yasiru Vindula Alwis was awarded the Bronze medal while Udari Imalka Wijesinghe won a Merit award at the final round, which was held on the 20th of April.
Several contestants from state universities and other higher educational institutions across the country participated, out of whom fifteen semi-finalists were selected by the evaluation of abstracts. The semi-final round consisted of a 3-minute thesis (3MT) presentation, where the contestants had to elaborate their research work as if they present it to a non-scientific community. Seven finalists from five universities were selected for the final round, which comprised a ten minutes presentation.
Mr. Y. Vindula Alwis presented his undergraduate research, “Synthesis, evaluation and structure activity relationship study of 2-phenyl-3H-quinazolin-4-one derivatives as urease inhibitors against Helicobacter pylori”, carried out under the supervision of Dr. Dinusha N. Udukala and Dr. Medha J. Gunaratna. This study was previously recognized by the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon as the “Best Research Project Beneficial for the Country”.
Ms. Udari Imalka Wijesinghe presented her research on “Biogenic synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles from Tephrosia purpurea and their efficacy for photoluminescence and photocatalysis” carried out under the guidance of Dr. Gobika Thiripuranathar.
We are proud to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of these young researchers and we wish them all the very best in their future endeavors!
