We are delighted to congratulate Ms. Saranya Selvaraj Lavan on being awarded the Kandiah Memorial Award for Applied Chemistry 2026, one of the prestigious research awards presented by the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon during its 55th Annual Sessions. The award recognizes outstanding postgraduate research in chemistry related applied interdisciplinary fields where chemistry plays a central role.
Ms. Lavan received this distinguished recognition for her exceptional research contributions in MPhil degree in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof Laksiri Weerasinghe. Prof Inoka C. Perera (University of Colombo), Prof Nilwala Kottegoda, and Dr. Tharindu Senapathi also contributed to this work as co-supervisors. Her MPhil research was supported by the Faculty Research Grant of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and focused on the project titled “Evaluation of Naturally Derived Peptides for Selective Anticancer and Antibacterial Therapy.”
Her research has contributed to several publications in SCI-indexed journals and has been presented at numerous national and international scientific conferences. She has been also awarded the Gold Medal for Research Excellence at the 51st Convocation of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura for MPhil program under the Board of Study in Physical Sciences of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Deakin University, Australia.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Ms. Lavan on this outstanding achievement and wish her continued success in her future research and academic endeavors.