Thivanka Ariyarathna (Ph.D.)
Visiting Scientist
Biogeochemistry Lab, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts
Contact:
611 North Pleasant Street, 233 Morrill Science Center, Amherst, MA-01002
Email: thivankaa@umass.edu, thivankaariyarathna@gmail.com
Education:
Ph.D. in Oceanography 2016 – University of Connecticut, USA
BSc. in Geology 2010 -University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Research Interests:
I am a biogeochemist, particularly doing research in both oceanic and freshwater aquatic systems. I am mainly interested in environmental organic contaminants including its fate and transport in the aquatic environments. For my PhD, I evaluated fate of explosive compounds (nitrogen containing aromatic compounds), specially, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-trazine (RDX) in coastal marine habitats using stable nitrogen isotopes. Sediments play an important role on ultimate fate of explosives in coastal ecosystems. Moreover, my research interests include sediment and hydro-geochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem processes and paleoclimatology. My instrumentational expertise includes GC, GC-MS, HPLC-MS, GC-IRMS and EA-IRMS. Currently, I am working on a project to develop and validate a method to reconstruct past temperatures based on a group of organic compounds called branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in Sebago Lake, Maine.
Research Gate profile:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thivanka_Ariyarathna
Google Scholar profile:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vUWnPnUAAAAJ&hl=en