Yohi Shivatharsiny

Dr. (Mrs.) Yohi Shivatharsiny (Shiva) is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree (B. Sc.) from the University of Jaffna with specialization in Chemistry in 2008. Then, she has joined as demonstrator in the Department of Chemistry, University of Jaffna. Later, she was promoted as an Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, and, then, she received the position of Lecturer (Probationary) in May 2010. At the same time she received and offer from the University of South Dakota, USA to pursue Ph.D. She obtained her Master’s degree (M.S.) and doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) in the years of 2012 and 2015, respectively, from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, USA, under the guidance of Prof. Ranjit Koodali. Her master’s thesis involved research mainly related to the adsorption of aquatic pollutants, especially dye materials, on the surface of oxide and mixed oxide mesoporous materials, whereas, her Ph.D. studies involved research related to the development of oxides and mixed oxide photocatalysts for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant and energy production. During the period of her research assistance ship, she received Young Scientist award from the Institute of Chemistry, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2012, and Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Department of Chemistry, University of South Dakota, in the period of 2011-2012. Further she was selected as one of the finalists in the national graduate student poster competition at Women in Clean Energy Symposium held in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Mass, USA in 2013. Additionally, she won the International Precious Metals Institute Student Honorary Award from International Precious Metals Institute, USA in March, 2014 and obtained appreciation for SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry, from Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), Columbus, Ohio, USA in 2014. She has more than 12 papers published in high impact journals during the five years of her Ph.D., and gained handful experiences in instrumentations and the related fields through the participation of several national and international conferences. After her Ph.D., she resumed her duties in May 2015 at the Department of Chemistry, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka and also promoted as Senior Lecturer (Gr II) in May 2015. After joined back to University of Jaffna, she received University research Grant in November 2015. In addition, she is serving as Editor in MAYFEB Journal of Chemistry and reviewer in some international journals, including, Journal of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology and Arabian Journal of Chemistry. Further, she is serving as an active executive committee member in several committees that include Jaffna Science Association (JSA) and Sri Lankan Society of Microbiology (SSM).