Chandre Dharma-wardana

Chandre Dharma-wardana
Born Colombo, Sri Lanka
Residence Canada
Nationality Sri Lankan
Citizenship Canadian
Alma mater University of Ceylon
Royal College, Colombo
Ananda College Colombo
University of Cambridge
Children 2
Scientific career
Fields Chemistry, Physics,
Institutions National Research Council of Canada, Université de Montreal.

Chandre Dharma-wardana is a Sri Lankan-born academic and scientist. A former President of Vidyodaya Campus (now the University of Sri Jayewardenepura), he is currently a professor of theoretical physics at the Université de Montréal. He is also currently a principal research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada.

Education

Educated at Aluthgama Vidyalaya, Ananda College and at Royal College, Colombo he earned a BSc (Hon.) from the University of Ceylon in 1961. He earned his PhD from The University of Cambridge, (Corpus Christi College).[1]

Academic career

Joining the university as a senior lecturer, he was later appointed as professor of chemistry.[2] From 1974 to 1975 he was appointed as President of Vidyodaya Campus. During this period he also held associate appointments with the Université de Paris, Orsay via the CECAM institute, associated with the French Atomic Energy Commission and the CNRS.[2] Currently, he is affiliated with the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) and the Université de Montréal, and works on various topics in the quantum theory, nanotechnology and also warm dense matter.[3]

Fields of research

Professor Dharma-wardana has worked on a wide variety of scientific topics, where the unifying theme is the application of the quantum theory, usually to many-body problems.[4] His work focused on quantum theory, statistical mechanics, and solid state physics associated with Raman scattering, energy-relaxation and phonons in nanostructures, quantum Hall effect, the physics of nanotubes and graphene. He worked on a variety of topics such as surface passivisation, quantum dots, organic light-emitting diodes and related nanostructures, energy-relaxation etc., in collaboration with researchers at the NRC, Universities or research institutions in Montreal, Toronto, British Columbia, Livermore, Los Alamos and Paris. A main area of Prof. Dharma-wardana's research has been in many-body theory and plasma physics, often in collaboration with François Perrot of the French Atomic Energy commission. The neutral-pseudo atom model (NPA) for warm dense matter is one of their main contributions of great practical value where finite-temperature density functional theory has been used to formulate a rigorous quantum mechanical approach to hot ionized matter. Subsequently, the construction of the classical-map scheme for quantum systems[5] is a ground-breaking work, leading to the formulation of the classical-map hyper-netted chain method (CHNC). This method has led to a new approach for the evaluation of properties of Fermi liquids and warm-dense matter. His previous work on the density-functional theory of dense plasmas[6] is now well-established in the NPA model. It has led to the development of methods for the first-principles evaluation of the equation of state, and the transport properties of dense plasmas.[7] His contributions to the energy-relaxation of hot electrons in semiconductors and also in plasmas,[8][9] have presented a new direction in the theory of non-equilibrium states of two-temperature charged fluids. His paper elucidating the unusual thermal conductivity of clathrates still attracts many citations.[10] His contributions to surface science (e.g. reconstruction of the sulphur-passivated InP surface), nanotechnology, phonons in semiconductor structures, quasi-periodic systems[11] etc., are well known and are contained in over 200 research publications. Dharma-wardana currently serves as a principal research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada, and is a professor of theoretical physics at the Université de Montréal. His most recent book on physics is entitled A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind, published in 2013 by World Scientific.[12]

See also Whose Who, Canada.[1]

Contributions to development studies and Sri Lankan Studies

Professor Dharma-wardana has also contributed to development studies[13] in Sri Lanka, and founded the 'Bachelor of Development Studies (B. Dev.) degree during his tenure as the President of Vidyodaya University. He was invited to talk about a web site of place names[14] maintained by him, at a conference organised by the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka.[15] He also maintains a website[16] dealing with the ethno-botany of plants in Sri Lanka, where the Sinhala, Sanskrit and Tamil names of the systematic botanical (i.e., Latin) names are followed up with details of ethnographic interest. Prof. Dharmawardana heads a project (WC4SL) for delivering free wheel chairs[17] to rural hospitals and disabled people of Sri Lanka; it has operated since the end of the Eelam wars in 2009.

At Vidyodaya University Professor Dharma-wardana held the title of a professor of chemistry, and was instrumental in establishing studies in polymer science in association with the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka. He also initiated academic programs and course units in food technology and environmental science. These were pioneering areas of study for a Sri Lankan university. Today, food science has grown into a full department and plays a vital national role. He has continued his interest in various aspects of environmental science. Professor Dharma-wardana has recently engaged himself in trying to unravel the origins of the mysterious kidney disease that has appeared (since 1992) in the North Central Province (NCP) of Sri Lanka, and now rising to near epidemic proportions, killing thousands of people. The disease has similarities to Danubian endemic familial nephropathy or DEFN. The cause of the disease is unknown and hence it is called chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) by medical scientists. A paper authored by him and three other well-known Sri Lankan scientists appeared in the journal Environmental Health and Geochemistry[18] setting the trend for a new paradigm regarding CKDu and multiple interactions among ions and their effect on toxicity [19]. He has been a frequent writer on environmental matters in Sri Lankan newspapers [20].

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Whose Who, Canada (University of Toronto Publication, updated annually)
  2. 1 2 Nuclear Plants in Sri Lanka and the Indiansubcontinent
  3. ↑ Quantum Theory Group
  4. ↑ M.W.C. Dharma-wardana, M. Cornille and F. Schuller, "Le Problem a N- corps", Université Paris-N., Villetaneuse, France (1982) ISBN 2-906222-02-X. [NRCC 20279]
  5. ↑ Classical maps: Physical Review Letters, vol 84, p. 959 (2000)
  6. ↑ Density Functional Theory, Ed. E. K. U. Gross and R. M. Dreizler, Plenum, New York, 1995, p635
  7. ↑ Dense Plasmas: Phys. Rev. E . vol 73, p 036401 (2006)
  8. ↑ Density functional and non-equilibrium methods for unusual states of matter produced using short-pulse lasers, in Laser Interactions with Atoms, Solids, and Plasmas (NATO ASI, series B vol. 327), p 331 Edited by R.M.More (Plenum, N.Y) 1994.
  9. ↑ M. W. C. Dharma-wardana, Quantum corrections and bound-state effects in hot dense hydrogen, Phys. Rev. Lett. vol.101, p.035002 (2008)
  10. ↑ The Thermal Conductivity of Ice Polymorphs and the Ice-Clathrates, J. Phys. Chem. 87, 4185 (1983)
  11. ↑ M.W.C. Dharma-wardana, A.H. MacDonald, D.J. Lockwood, J.-M. Baribeau and D.C. Houghton, Raman Scattering in Fibonacci Superlattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. vol.58, p.1761 (1987)
  12. ↑ A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind (World Scientific 2013)
  13. ↑ Dudley Seer's Report, Matching Employment Opportunities and Expectations, (ILO), tables 3.2–3 1972
  14. ↑ Place-names in Sri Lanka
  15. ↑ RASSL NEWSLETTER
  16. ↑ Sinhala-Sanskrit-Tamil names of Plants in Sri Lanka
  17. ↑ Wheel-chairs for Sri Lanka (WC4SL)
  18. ↑ Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown aetiology and ground-water ionicity:
  19. ↑ Cornell University Archive, quantitative biology.
  20. ↑ Coastal authority to deal with climate change. A must for a 21st century constitution of Sri Lanka


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