Rate My Professor Himali Hewage

Dr. Himali Hewage serves as Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Department Chair in the Chemistry Department at Austin Community College, where she has held these positions since 2011. She acts as the primary contact for ACC students with inquiries about course selection and Chemistry Department policies, providing guidance through her email hhewage@austincc.edu and phone (512) 223-6215. Dr. Hewage instructs various chemistry courses, including General Chemistry I Lecture (CHEM 1311), laboratory experiments such as those in CHEM 1112, and topics in Organic Chemistry II, supporting students in foundational and applied chemistry education at the community college level.

Dr. Hewage's academic background includes an M.Sc. degree earned in 2003 from the University of Western Ontario as part of the Pagenkopf research group in chemistry. She subsequently pursued advanced graduate training at The University of Texas at Austin, completing an M.A. and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from 2001 to 2008 in the laboratory of Eric V. Anslyn, Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry. Her doctoral research centered on supramolecular analytical chemistry, with a focus on developing chemosensors and pattern recognition methods for detecting analytes such as thiols, metals, palladium residues, nitrated explosives, and chemical warfare simulants. Key peer-reviewed publications co-authored during this period include "Differential Receptors Create Patterns Diagnostic for ATP and GTP" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2003), "Novel chemiluminescent detection of chemical warfare simulant" (Chemical Communications, 2007), "A Colorimetric Chemodosimeter for Pd(II): A Method for Detecting Residual Palladium in Cross-Coupling Reactions" (Tetrahedron Letters, 2008), "Pattern Recognition Based Identification of Nitrated Explosives" (2008), and "Pattern-Based Recognition of Thiols and Metals Using a Single Squaraine Indicator" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009). After obtaining her Ph.D., Dr. Hewage worked as a Research Associate at Beacon Sciences LLC from 2008 to 2009 and as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Southwestern University in 2010. She is recognized in Eric V. Anslyn's curriculum vitae as a Ph.D. alumnus currently serving as Professor at Austin Community College.