Dr. Asanga Ranasinghe started his education as a Chemistry and Mathematics major toward a Bachelor’s degree (at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka). After Moving to Las Vegas, NV, at UNLV, he researched organometallic light-emitting molecules to construct pixels for OLED TVs. In this research, the main areas specialized were physical organic chemistry, organometallic synthesis, and molecular spectroscopy. Upon completion of the MS, he continued working towards the Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which he mentions as the best-ever place to pursue a graduate degree in Materials Sciences. Apart from the picturesque setting, the ever-brilliant Chemistry faculty included 3 recent Nobel laureates (Profs. Walter Kohn, Alan Heeger, and Shuji Nakamura). As a graduate student, he had the opportunity to work closely with two of them on polymer-quantum dot LEDs towards flexible OLED TVs and another collaborative research with the chemical engineering department on direct methanol fuel cells. This research exposed him to the world of chemical engineering and was able to obtain a patent for constructing a new fuel cell device that runs on methanol.

After completing the Ph.D., he continued chemistry education in a prolonged postdoctoral fellowship at UNLV in electroanalytical chemistry, nuclear chemistry, polymer chemistry, and x-ray spectroscopy. He was also appointed as adjunct faculty of Chemistry at UNLV to teach Organic and General chemistry as well as the only chemistry professor at the Nevada State College where he had to teach all levels of chemistry classes and business mathematics. These experiences allowed him to be able to teach any area of chemistry and he joined the CCCOnline system in the Fall of 2016-2022 and presently as a full-time Professor of Chemistry at Amarillo College. As of to date, I have more than 16 years of continuous teaching experience in academia.