Mahinda Ranasinghe, WVSU College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

EDUCATION

PhD: Wayne State University – Physical Chemistry

BS: University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka – Chemistry

ACADEMIC/PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Aug. 2024 – Present – Chair – Department of Chemistry and Physics, West Virginia State University.

Aug. 2021 – Present – Assistant Professor-Physical/Analytical Chemistry, West Virginia State University.

Aug. 2014 – Jul. 2021 – Assistant Professor – Physical Chemistry, New Mexico Tech

Jun. 2012 – Jun.2014 – Senior Research Associate – University of Calgary

TEACHING INTERESTS

Chemistry for non-science majors

General Chemistry for science majors

Analytical Chemistry

Environmental Chemistry

Physical Chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry

RESEARCH INTERSTS

Water Chemistry

Advanced oxidation processes for water purification

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology for Solar Energy related Applications

SERVICES TO THE UNIVERSITY

Alternate Senator – For CNSM, WVSU Faculty Senate

Chair – Organic Chemistry Faculty Search Committee

Member – NSM Academic Associate Search Committee

Chair – Chemical Engineering Faculty Search Committee, WVSU

Member – Chemistry Lab Manager Search Committee, WVSU

Member – Cataloging Librarian Search Committee

Member – Library Committee, WVSU Faculty Senate

Member – Faculty Grievance Committee, WVSU Faculty Senate

Member – Academic Appeals Committee, WVSU Faculty Senate

Member – Educational Policy Committee, WVSU Faculty Senate

Member – Faculty Personal Committee, WVSU Faculty Senate

COURSES OFFERED AT WVSU

CHEM 105 – General Chemistry 1

CHEM 106 – General Chemistry 2

CHEM 132 – Introduction to Environmental Chemistry

CHEM 202 – Applied Calculations and Models in Chemistry

CHEM 211 – Introduction to Analytical Chemistry

CHEM 301 – Physical Chemistry 1

CHEM 302 – Physical Chemistry 2

CHEM 303 – Physical Chemistry 1 Lab

CHEM 304 – Physical Chemistry 2 Lab

CHEM 416 – Instrumental Analysis

CHEM 418 – Instrumental Analysis Lab

CHEM 429 – Spectroscopic Methods

CHEM 460 – Directed Research

ENGR 311 – Thermodynamics

PUBLICATIONS

De Silva, Gehan; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Chowdhury, Sanchari, “Understanding the induction time associated with the photoreduction of resazurin by hydroxylamine in the presence of gold nanoparticles as a photocatalyst” Reaction Kinetics, Mechanism and Catalysis, (2020), 131, 965-977.

Clurman, Adam M.; Rodriguez-Narvaez, Oscar M.; Jayarathne, Ayomi; De Silva, Gehan; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Goonetilleke, Ashantha; Bandala, Erick R., “Influence of surface hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of biochar on the removal of emerging contaminants” Chemical Engineering Journal, (2020), 402, 126277.

Rodriguez-Narvaez, Oscar M.; Rajapaksha, Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Bai, Xuelian; Hernandez, Juan, M. .; Bandala, Erick R. “Peroxymonosulfate decomposition by homogeneous and heterogeneous Co: Kinetics and application for the degradation of acetaminophen” Journal of Environmental Sciences. (2020), 93, 30-40.

Rajapaksha, Ruwini D.; Fuierer, Paul A.; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I. “Colloindal CuZnInS₃ nanocrystals as the sensitizer in photovoltaic solar cell”, Solar Energy, (2019), 189(C), 503-509.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Turner Danielle; Vigil Jade; Frolova Liliya V.; Altig Jeffrey A.; Rogelj Snezna; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I. “Photo-physical Properties of Substituted 2, 3-Distyryl Indoles; A Spectroscopic, Computational and Biological Insights.”, Journal of Photochemistry & Photobiology A : Chemistry, (2019), 376, 73-79.

Rajapaksha, Ruwini D.; Benet, Matthias^U; Champion, Cody^U; Frolova, Liliya V.; Rogelj, Snezna; Choudhury, Pabitra; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.“Spectroscopic study of photoactive antibacterial agent: 2,3-Distyrylindoles”. Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2018), 122 (4), 937-945.

Edwards, Les; Turner, Danielle; Champion, Cody; Khandelwal, Megha; Zingler, Kailee; Stone, Cassidy; Rajapaksha, Ruwini D.; Yang, Jing; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Kornienko, Alexander; Frolova, Liliya; Rogelj, Snezna “Photoactivated 2,3-Distyrylindole kill multi-drug resistant bacteria”. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 28(10), 2018, 1879-1886.

Rajapaksha, Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I. “The shell thickness and surface passivation dependence of fluorescence decay kinetics in CdSe/ZnS core-shell and CdSe core colloidal quantum dots.” Journal of Luminescence 192C (2017), 860-866.

Varnavski, Oleg P.; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Yan, Xingzhong; Bauer, Christina A.; Chung, Sung-Jae; Perry, Joseph W.; Marder, Seth R.; Goodson, Theodore, III. Ultrafast Energy Migration in Chromophore Shell-Metal Nanoparticle Assemblies. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2006), 128(34), 10988-10989.

Ranasinghe Mahinda I.; Hager, Michael W.; Gorman, Christopher B.; Goodson III, Theodore “Time-Resolved Fluorescence Investigation of Energy Transfer in Compact Phenylacetylene Dendrimers” The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. (2004), 108(25), 8543-8549.

Ranasinghe Mahinda I.; Murphy, Prescott; Lu, Zhikuan; Huang, Songping D.; Twieg Robert J.; Goodson III, Theodore “Temperature Dependence of Incoherent Excitation Energy Transfer in a Dendritic core system with Benzene Branching Center”, Chemical Physics Letters. (2004), 383(3-4), 411-417.

Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Wang, Ying; Goodson III, Theodore; “Excitation Energy Transfer in Branched Dendritic Macromolecules at Low (4K) Temperatures”. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2003), 125(18), 5258-5259.

Wang, Ying; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Goodson III, Theodore; “Ultra-fast Fluorescence Investigation of Excitation Energy Transfer in Different Dendritic Core Branched Structures”. Journal of the American Chemical Society. (2003), 125(32), 9562-9563.

Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Varnavski, Oleg P.; Pawlas, Jan; Hauck, Sheila I.; Louie, Janis; Hartwig, John F.; Goodson, Theodore, III. “Femtosecond Excitation Energy Transport in Triarylamine Dendrimers”. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2002), 124(23), 6520-6521.

PRESENTATIONS

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Fuierer Paul; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “ Synthesis of Quaternary Cu-Zn-In-S nanocrystals and Photovoltaic Characteristics” Abstract of Papers, 256th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, USA, August 19-23, 2018.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Frolova Liliya V.; Turner Danielle, Rogelj Snezna, Choudhury Pabitra, Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “Spectroscopic Study of A Photoactive Antibacterial Agent 2,3- Distyrylindole”, Gordon Research Conference, Oxygen Radical, Ventura, CA, USA, February 2018.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Frolova Liliya V.; Turner Danielle, Rogelj Snezna, Choudhury Pabitra, Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “Spectroscopic Study of A Photoactive Antibacterial Agent 2,3- Distyrylindole”, Gordon Research Seminar, Oxygen Radical, Ventura, CA, USA, February 2018.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. Spectroscopic Study on Novel Photoactive Antibacterial Agent: 2, 3 – Distyrylindole.”, New Mexico academy of Science 2016 Research Symposium, Albuquerque, NM, USA, November 2017.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. ” Ultrafast fluorescence emission decay dynamics of CdSe and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots using time-resolved fluorescence upconversion spectroscopy”, New Mexico academy of Science 2016 Research Symposium, Albuquerque, NM, USA, November 2016.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “Ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of Cd based quantum dots using time resolved fluorescence upconversion spectroscopy”, The 28th Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials, Albuquerque, NM, USA, October 2016.

Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Dugas, Michael; Melad, Aaron; Gordon Conference – Solar Energy Conversion, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology – Hong Kong, 17-22 July 2016 “Ultra-fast, femtosecond fluorescence decay of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots”

Rajapaksha, Ruwini D,; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “Ultrafast photoinduced dynamics in CdSe/ZnS quantum dots using femtosecond time resolved fluorescence unconversion spectroscopy” Abstract of Papers, 252^nd ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, USA, August 21-25, 2016.

Rajapaksha Ruwini D.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I. “Ultrafast, timeresolved fluorescence spectroascopic chareaterization of rare earth metal-based nanomaterials” Symposium Proceedings, The New Mexico Journal of Science, 49, December 2015.

Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Goodson III, Theodore; Organic Nanophotonics – Nato Advanced Research Workshop, Aix-En-Provence, France, August 25-29, 2002 “Investigation of optical excitations in novel dendrimers using ultra-fast anisotropy measurements”

Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Goodson III, Theodore; Gordon Conference – Photochemistry, Mount Holyoke College, 20-25 July 2003. “Optical Excitation Energy Transfer in Dendrimers”.

Lu, Zhikuan; Huang, Songping D.; Twieg, Robert J.; He, Pinggang; Ranasinghe, Mahinda I.; Goodson, T., III. “Multibranched π-conjugated molecules with terminal pyridine functionality”. Abstracts of Papers, 225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, United States, March 23-27, 2003

Peteanu Linda A.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I.; Gerstle Andrea J. “Optical properties of dye labeled DNA gold nanoparticle constructs”. Abstracts of Papers, 229th ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA, United States, March 13-17, 2005.

Gerstle Andrea J.; Ranasinghe Mahinda I.; Peteanu Linda A. “Fluorescence Properties of dye-DNA complexes in the presence of metal particles”. Abstracts of Papers, 230th ACS National Meeting, Washington DC, United States, August 27-September 1, 2005.