Meet the Team
The following researchers are affiliated with crcCARE through sponsorship arrangements
Dr Anitha Kenday Sivaram
Research Fellow
Research Interests and Expertise: Risk assessment of petroleum hydrocarbons in groundwater aquifers, molecular toxicology of organic pollutants to aquatic invertebrates, earthworms, and plants, sustainable agriculture, plant uptake and accumulation of PFAS in crop plants, phytoremediation of organics, and plant-microbial interaction in organic pollutant remediation.
Dr Bhaba Biswas
Research Fellow in Applied clay science (Environment & Agriculture)
Humboldt Fellow
Research Interest and Expertise: Material-based environmental remediation, specialises in applied clay research, material synthesis, characterisation, and the valorisation of raw minerals and materials.
Dr. Chamila Samarasinghe
Research Associate
Research Interests and Expertise: Investigating the environmental soil chemistry and toxicity, understanding the underlying mechanisms, and finding remedial options for organic and inorganic contaminants including total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), PFAS, nanoparticles, and Jet Fuel additives.
Mr Danidu Kudagamage
Senior Technical Officer
Danidu’s expertise extends to various groundwater sampling methods, including submersible, split, waterra, and bladder techniques. He is also proficient in soil sampling methods such as push probe, hand core, and mechanical core, as well as conducting soil gas sampling and installing soil gas wells. Additionally, Danidu utilizes the Tridion-9 portable GC-MS (Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry) for analysing TCE and hydrocarbons.
Dr Liang Wang
Senior Research Fellow
Research Interests and Expertise: Environmental science and technology, emphasising rapid in-situ contaminated site characterisation, spectroscopy with machine learning, and novel environmental sensor development.
Dr Md. Nuruzzaman
Research Associate
Research Interests and Expertise: Agricultural Science including crop production and crop protection with specialisation in pesticide formulations and pollution, soil characterization, contamination assessment, risk evaluation, and remediation of agrochemicals.
Dr Mezbaul Bahar
Senior Environmental Scientist
Research Interests and Expertise: Bioremediation, ecological risk assessment, site characterisation, and soil health.
Dr Rashidul Islam
Research Associate
Research Interests and Expertise: Environmental contamination remediation or emission reduction through the application of clay/zeolite or synthesis and modified nanomaterials, contaminated site characterization, risk assessment for plants, animals, and humans, bioavailability, bio-accessibility, and risk-based management approaches.
Dr Sai Gopalan
Research Fellow
Research Interests and Expertise: Materials/structural characterization for diverse applications utilizing a wide range of analytical/scientific equipment including sophisticated electron microscopy.
Dr Santosh Kumar Paul
Research Associate
Research Interests and Expertise: Crop production and crop protection with a specialization in nano-pesticide formulations, agriculture, pest management and biosecurity, remediation methods (management of soil, water, nutrients, fertilizer, irrigation etc.).
Dr Yanju Liu
Senior Research Fellow
Research Interests and Expertise: Heavy metal, PFAS, TPH/PAH, to understand the bioavailability, bioaccessibility, sorption/desorption, toxicity and threshold values, and remediation of contaminants in soils/groundwater.
Analytical Team
Mr Abhishek Sharma
Technical Officer
Mr Abhishek Sharma’s role oversees the working operation and ongoing maintenance of specialised analytical instrumentation, including ICP-OES, ICP-MS, LC-ICP-MS, IC, TOC, Soil C/N/S, Pore size/surface area and Particle size/zeta potential analytical systems for inorganic contaminant analysis.
Associate Professor Mahmud Rahman
Associate Professor
Research Interests and Expertise: Chemistry, toxicity, bioavailability and human health effects of arsenic, metals/metalloids speciation using hyphenated techniques, lowering arsenic and cadmium from rice to enhance food security and agronomic bio-fortification of zinc and selenium in food crops to minimize micronutrient deficiencies.