Professional academic experience
February 2025 - current
Postdoctoral researcher, Nutrition and Seafood Laboratory (NuSea.Lab), Deakin University (Deakin Marine) at Queenscliff, Victoria 3225, Australia. As a research assistant I am involved in abalone aquaculture research, which involves abalone culture and biochemical analysis
Project cost ~ A$ 650,000
October 2024 - January 2025
Researcher, Lancaster Environment Center, Lancaster University, United Kingdom (Remote). As a part and on-behalf of an international team called “International Community of Practice on Nutrient Composition of Aquatic Foods”, I organised all the logistics (Flights, Visas, Ground transport, Meals and snacks, Accommodation, Venue, Remote Connectivity, Reimbursements, Health and safety) necessary to conduct a successful writing workshop in Rome, Italy for 18 in-person and 4 remote participants. This workshop was funded by Lancaster Environment Center and supervised by Professor Christina Hicks.
Project cost ~ £ 100,000
February 2024 - December 2025
Casual Research Fellow, Nutrition and Seafood Laboratory (NuSea.Lab), Deakin University (Deakin Marine) at Queenscliff, Victoria 3225, Australia. As a research fellow I was involved in experimental designs, sampling protocol preparation, and biochemical analysis of feeds and tissue sample arising from a coral husbandry experiment carried out in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. I also was involved in data engineering, data curation, scripting, data analysis and interpretation of the results of 3 experiments under this project.
Project cost ~ A$ 305,000
January 2022 - December 2022
Research Consultant, Freelancer. I provided research consultation for an external research organization called Focus PVT LTD for an AgriFutures, Australia funded project on seaweed value addition for agricultural inputs along with the director Dr Jane Stanely. I directly contributed to the experimental design, execution of the field experiments, and writing one report and two fact sheets, one on regulatory reforms relating to seaweed use and the other one about practical farm use of seaweeds as outcomes of this project.
Project cost ~ A$ 40,000
January 2020 - December 2023
Ph.D. Candidate, Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University. I completed my candidature at Nutrition and Seafood Laboratory (NuSea.Lab), Deakin University (Deakin Marine) at Queenscliff, Victoria 3225, Australia. As a Ph.D. Candidate I was involved in experimental designs, designing and validating protocols, sample collection, processing, and biochemical analysis of the processed and unprocesssed samples from three different experiments using a Phyllospora comosa (crayweed) macrophytes collected from Victoria, Australia. Further, I built machine learning predictive and classification models using experimental and simulated data. So far, I have published three manuscripts with high impact Elsevier Journals including Food Research International, Food Control, and Algal Research. Two more manuscripts arising from my Ph.D. results are currently being drafted.
Project cost ~ A$ 256,000
November 2019 - May 2022
Researcher, Future proofing Australian agriculture with seaweed supplementation project and consultation to Dr Alecia Bellgrove of Deakin Unviersity, and Heytesbury Landcare Network. Was awarded Demo Dairy funds AUD 20,000, Heytesbury Landcare Network fund AUD 20,000 and Deakin University funds AUD 7,800. Was collaborated with a 5 million AUD CRC-P project.
Project cost ~ A$ 47,500
Decembre 2016 - August 2019
Scientist, Post Harvest (Marine), National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency, Sri Lanka. As a national scientist, every financial year, I carried out research projects and developmental projects in collaboration with several national and international organisations.
2019
2019 a.
Quality management ISO17025: Method validation, uncertainty measurements, proficiency testing, instrument calibration, repair and maintenance and staff capacity building for the analysis of amino acids, fatty acids, PAH, histamine, protein, and heavy metal content of fisheries products.
Project cost ~ ₨ 1,000,000
2019 b.
Assessment of food safety parameters along the fish and fish products supply chain in Sri Lanka (Heavy metals, PAH, Nanoplastics)
Project cost ~ ₨ 1,000,000
2019 c.
Application of Bionanotechnology in Value Addition to Aquatic Resources
Project cost ~ ₨ 2,000,000
2018
2018 a.
Quality management ISO17025: Method validation, uncertainty measurements, proficiency testing, instrument calibration, repair and maintenance and staff capacity building for the analysis of amino acids, fatty acids, PAH, histamine, protein, and heavy metal content of fisheries products.
Project cost ~ ₨ 1,000,000
2018 b.
Assessment and knowledge-dissemination on quality of fish in newly built in multiday boats, Central Fish Market and selected retail places
Project cost ~ ₨ 3,000,000
2018 c.
Value Added Aquatic Products - . Development of nanolaminated fish oil using chitosan
Project cost ~ ₨ 2,500,000
2018 d.
Evaluation of Bio-active Potential of Selected Sri Lankan Marine Algae
Project cost ~ ₨ 1,000,000
2018 e.
“Colombo Sea Food Festival” - Organising a one week event for vendors and sea food consumers at the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka for promoting Sri Lankan seafood culture, history and values.
2017
2017 a.
Evaluation of post harvest quality loss assessment of tuna of multiday boat in Negambo, Beruwala, Trincomalee, Dikkovita, Mirissa Fishery harbor
Project cost ~ ₨ 8,220,000
2017 b.
Value added product development using local seaweed species
Project cost ~ ₨ 1,500,000
2017 c.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbon estimation in smoked fish samples
Project cost ~ ₨ 500,000
2017 d.
Radioactivity measurements of fish and seaweed sample collected around Sri Lanka.
Project cost ~ ₨ 190,000
August 2016
Technical expert, All India Coordinated Research Project on Nutrition, PGRC, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. As a technical expert, I devised local protocols used to analyse the anitoxidant and polyphnol content of locally consumed fruits and vegetables in Telangana, India and trained AICRP staffs to conduct these analysis.
August 2015 - July 2016
Masters research student, As a part of my master of food technology thesis, I explored various extraction solvents on extracting, isolating and utilising bioactive compounds from so called insulin plant Costus igneus. I used multivariate models to explore the data sets from this study and published two papers from the thesis and three papers from the collaboration with the Nanotechnology Laboratory, Acharya NG Ranaga Agricultural institute, Tirupati, India.
June 2015 - July 2015
Intern and Nanotechnology laboratory, As a part of my master of food technology course work, I joined the Nanotechnology laboratory in Tirupati to understand and explore the applications of nanotechnology in food science.
August 2014 - July 2016
Master of Food Technology, I was awarded the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Moulana Azad Scholarship to study two years masters course (1 year course work and 1 year research) in India.