Rate My Professor Upul Ranaweera

Upul Ranaweera serves as Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at The Ohio State University at Newark. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cincinnati in 2012. His doctoral dissertation, "Photo-induced Nitrogen and Carbon Based Radicals: A study on triplet nitrenes, triplet 1,2 and 1,3-biradicals," explored the formation and reactivity of nitrogen- and carbon-based organic radicals under photo-induced conditions. Supervised by Bruce Ault and Anna Gudmundsdottir, the work utilized laser flash photolysis, time-resolved spectroscopy, matrix isolation, product analysis, and DFT computations to examine phenomena such as intramolecular sensitized triplet nitrene formation, efficient trans-cis isomerization through triplet 1,2-biradicals, photo-induced triplet 1,3-biradicals, and the behavior of carbon-based radicals, revealing intermediate lifetimes ranging from microseconds.

Prior to joining Ohio State, Ranaweera held positions as Chemistry Instructor at Eastern Illinois University from 2017 to 2018 and Visiting Assistant Professor at Murray State University. His Google Scholar profile lists affiliations with the University of Cincinnati, Eastern Illinois University, and Murray State University, alongside research interests in Organic Chemistry and Materials science, with his publications cited 236 times. Notable publications include "Triplet-Sensitized Photoreactivity of a Geminal Diazidoalkane" (The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2011, with Jagadis Sankaranarayanan, Lydia Casey, Bruce S. Ault, and Anna D. Gudmundsdottir), "Effect of moisture on cationic polymerization of silicone epoxy monomers" (Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2015, with Thomas P. Schuman, Rongpeng Wang, Bradley D. Miller, and K. V. Kilway), and "Phototautomerization on the Singlet and Triplet Surface in o-Nitrostilbenes" (The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2015). At Ohio State University at Newark, he has co-authored research with students and collaborators including Sujan K. Sarkar, Rajkumar Merugu, Nayera M. Abdelaziz, Jendai Robinson, Heidi A. Day, Jeanette A. Krause, and Anna D. Gudmundsdottir, featured in faculty accomplishments. Ranaweera teaches core chemistry courses such as CHEM 1110 and CHEM 1210.