Ranil Wickramasinghe

Dr. Ranil Wickramasinghe has published over 220 peer reviewed journal articles, several book chapters and is co-editor of books on responsive membrane and materials and hollow fiber contactors. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Membrane Society. He was meeting Co-Chair of the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM) 2017 in San Francisco. He is executive editor of Separation Science and Technology. Prof Wickramasinghe’s research interests are in membrane science and technology. His research focuses on synthetic membrane-based separation processes for purification of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, treatment, and reuse of water and for the production of biofuels. A current research focus is surface modification of membranes in order to impart unique surface properties. His group is actively developing responsive membranes. These membranes change their physical properties in response to changed environmental conditions. A second research focus is the development of catalytic membranes for biomass hydrolysis by grafting catalytic groups to the membrane surface. Prof Wickramasinghe obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia in Chemical Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of Minnesota, also in Chemical Engineering. He worked for 5 years in the biotechnology/biomedical industry in the Boston area before joining the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Colorado State University. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas in 2011 where he holds the Ross E Martin Chair in Emerging Technologies and is an Arkansas Research Alliance Scholar. Professor Wickramasinghe is the Center Director of the Membrane Applied Science and Technology (MAST) Center, a NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center.