Gayan Rubasinghege

Dr. Gayan Rubasinghege is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Kelaniya (2005) and a Ph.D. in Physical and Environmental Chemistry from the University of Iowa (2011).

His research interests focus on environmental interfaces, heterogeneous chemistry, photochemistry, and the implications of nanoscience for climate, biogeochemistry, and human health. Key projects include studying chemical transformations of mineral oxides in atmospheric aerosols, linking iron processing to marine diatom growth, and developing catalytic polymer composites for wastewater treatment.

Recent work explores environmental pollutants like pharmaceuticals and nanomaterials using advanced analytical tools (FTIR, XPS, ICP-MS, HPLC). He has received the A. Lynn Anderson Award (2010) and was a nominee for the Graduate College Dissertation Prize (2012).

Current advisees include graduate students Milton Das (toxicological coal dust effects) and Rifat Khan (PFAS groundwater impacts). The lab maintains collaborations with Los Alamos National Laboratory (CINT) for high-resolution TEM/SEM analysis and employs custom reactor systems for simulating atmospheric conditions.