Dr Ayomi Perera appointed Lecturer at Kingston University London

Until this month, Dr Perera was a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering (CNIE) and the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL, working with Prof Marc-Olivier Coppens, after a PhD at Kansas State University (2012) and a BSc in Chemistry in her native Sri Lanka (2007). Her most recent research articles on hierarchically structured titanosilicate catalysts for oxidative catalysis (in RSC Catalysis and the Journal of Materials Science), to nacre-inspired, hybrid materials for biomedical applications (ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces), are illustrative of the breadth of Dr Perera’s work, representing innovations in sustainable chemical production, functional materials synthesis and healthcare, by translating lessons from nature to engineering design. In this work, she has collaborated intensively with researchers in the CNIE, in UCL Mechanical Engineering (Prof Mark Miodownik, Prof Mohan Edirisinghe, Dr Richard Jackson and Prof Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam, the Royal Institution and Medicine (Prof Richard Day), and inspired PhD, MSc and MEng students with her guidance. During her time at UCL, Ayomi has also been very engaged in outreach activities, from “Pint of Science” to in2Science and UCL’s “It’s All Academic” Festival. We wish Ayomi all the best for the future in her independent academic position!