Professors Ramanan and Siyamalan Honoured with the Award for Academic Excellence – 2024
The Faculty of Science is proud to announce that Professor Ramanan and Professor Siyamalan have been selected to receive the Award for Academic Excellence – 2024. The selection was made in accordance with the established guidelines, and they will be formally honoured at the upcoming meeting of the Senate.
This prestigious award recognises and celebrates members of the academic staff at the University of Jaffna who have made outstanding contributions in Teaching and Academic Development, Research, and University Development and Outreach Activities during the year 2024.
The recognition of Professors Ramanan and Siyamalan is a testament to their unwavering dedication, innovative practices, and commitment to academic excellence. Their contributions continue to inspire students, colleagues, and the wider university community. This honour not only acknowledges their individual achievements but also serves as a powerful motivation for all staff—particularly emerging academics—to strive for excellence, embrace innovation, and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the Faculty and the University.
The Faculty of Science extends its heartfelt congratulations to both Professors Ramanan and Siyamalan on receiving this distinguished recognition from the Senate.
Two faculty staff are among the Stanford-Elsevier list of the world’s top 2 % of Scientists in the year 2024
Two academic staff from the Faculty of Science have been named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists in the prestigious list published by Elsevier. This global ranking, based on Scopus data—the world’s largest abstract and citation database—covers all fields of research. Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the standard Science-Metrix classification. Field- and subfield-specific percentiles are provided for all scientists with at least five publications.
The database reports both career-long impact (updated to the end of 2024) and single-year impact (citations received in 2024). Selection is based on either inclusion in the top 100,000 scientists by composite score (with and without self-citations) or ranking within the top 2% of researchers in a given sub-field. The latest version (Version 7) uses the 1 August 2025 Scopus snapshot, updated to the end of the 2024 citation year.
In the 2024 list, Professor S. N. Surendran, Senior Professor of Zoology, and Dr T. Mathanaranjan, Senior Lecturer (Grade I) in Mathematics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, have been included. The Faculty extends its warmest congratulations to them on this outstanding research achievement. It is noteworthy that Dr Mathanarajan was also recognised in the 2023 edition of the list.
Prof. M. Thanihaichelvan Receives the Prestigious CVCD Excellence Award 2024
Prof. M. Thanihaichelvan has been honoured with the Most Outstanding Young Researcher Award in the field of Natural Sciences at the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) Excellence Awards Ceremony for the year 2024. The ceremony was held on August 2, 2025, at the Senate House of the University of Colombo.
This distinguished recognition is a testament to Prof. Thanihaichelvan’s exceptional research contributions and scholarly achievements as a young academic within the Sri Lankan university system. The CVCD Excellence Awards, a biennial event, celebrate outstanding accomplishments in research and innovation across the country’s universities. Awardees are selected through a highly rigorous process, evaluated by an expert panel comprising eminent professors and leading researchers from Sri Lankan universities, with final approval granted by the CVCD.
Prof. Thanihaichelvan’s achievement underscores his remarkable research excellence and unwavering dedication to advancing scientific knowledge. The faculty appreciate him on this outstanding accomplishment.
Awards for Research Supervision
The SUSRED (Support Scheme for Supervision of Research Degrees) is a prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to supervisors of postgraduate research degrees (MPhil/PhD), recognizing their excellence in research supervision. This award highlights the commitment of supervisors in guiding MPhil and PhD research projects and their significant contribution to achieving impactful research outcomes.
To qualify, research projects must have led to the publication of at least one full research paper in an indexed journal (SCI Expanded or SSCI) or resulted in a patent based on the postgraduate research. Additionally, the research must have mainly been conducted in Sri Lanka and completed within five years. The awards are open to full-time research degrees in all fields of Science and Technology.
The titles of the theses, along with the names of the supervisors and students, are listed in the table below.
| Supervisors | Year of Award | Student, MPhil/PhD thesis | Title of the thesis |
| Prof. M. Thanihaichelvan (S) Prof. P. Ravirajan Prof. V. Dhayalan (HVL) | 2024 | Mr. G. Abiram | Fabrication and characterization of perovskite thin film field effect transistors |
| Prof. S. N. Surendran (S) Prof. V. Arasaratnam Prof. T. Kumanan Prof. K. Gajapathy Prof. K. Suthakar | 2023 | Mr. T.T.P. Jayadas PhD | Aedes Larval bionomics, Circulating Serotypes and a risk map in relation to dengue transmission in Jaffna district. |
| Prof. A. Ramanan (S) | 2023 | Mrs. M. Shajini PhD | A Semi- Supervised Deep Learning Approach based on Attentive Visual Features for Fashion Clothing Classification. |
| Prof. M. Siyamalan (S) Prof. A. Ramanan | 2023 | Ms. R. Nirthika | Deep Learning Based Fine-Grained Diabetic Retinopathy Image Grading. |
| Prof. M. Senthilnanthanan (S) Prof. P. Ravirajan Prof. V. Dhayalan (HVL) | 2023 | Mr.T.Rajaramanan | Enhancing the Performance of Dye-Sensitised Solar Cells through Doping/Co-doping TiO 2 Electrodes. |
| Prof. M. Senthilnanthanan (S) Prof. P. Ravirajan Prof. V. Dhayalan (HVL) | 2023 | Ms. T. Kajana | Storage of solar energy by Heterostructured Carbon/ Silver- Metal Oxides/ Tin Sulphide Photocapacitors. |
| Prof. P. Ravirajan (S) Prof. V. Dhayalan (HVL) | 2023 | Mr.A.Prashanthan | Role of Quarterthiophene and Ruthenium-based dyes in enhancing the performance of hybrid Titanium dioxide/ polymer solar Cells. |
| Dr. Romaine Jeyawardene(S) Dr. Jayampathy Ratnayake (University of Colombo) | 2021 | Mr.M.Annanthakrishna (FoS staff) MPhil | On the initial algebras and final coalgebras of endofunctors arising from self-similar systems on the category of k – k-pointed metric spaces” |
| Prof. Mrs. S.Kuganathan (S) | 2012 | Mr.G.A.Charles | Population dynamics of Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) from the Jaffna lagoon |
| Prof. Mrs. S.Kuganathan (S) | 2014 | Ms.T.W.Shanthakumar | Reproductive characteristics of Scomberoides lysan (Forsskal, 1775) (Pisces: Carangidae) from the waters around Jaffna Peninsula, Sri Lanka |
| Prof. Mrs. S.Kuganathan (S) | 2014 | Ms.S.Sathyaruban | Lipid changes in relation to sexual maturity and spawning in Scomberoides lysan (Carangidae) from waters around the Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka |
In 2023, 42 MPhil/PhD theses from 17 state universities were selected for SUSRED awards. The University of Jaffna won awards for 7 MPhil/PhD theses, with our faculty staff earning supervision awards for 6 of 7 these selected from the University of Jaffna.
More information, click here.
Dr. T. Mathanarajan is among the Stanford-Elsevier list of the world’s top 2 % of Scientists in the year 2023
An article published in PLOS Biology on 08-10-2020 with authors from Stanford University and Elsevier BV is linked to a publicly available database of 100,000 top-ranked scientists, together with the top 2% of scientists for every sub-field (Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators (plos.org)). Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. Ranking of scientists is done using standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted h-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator. This version (6) is based on the October 1, 2023, snapshot from Scopus, updated to the end of the citation year 2022. This work uses Scopus data provided by Elsevier through ICSR Lab (https://www.elsevier.com/icsr/icsrlab). Calculations were performed using all Scopus author profiles as of October 1, 2023. For more detailed information, including the full paper and datasets, please refer to the following link: [https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6]
In the list of the top 2% scientists for the year 2023, Dr. T. Mathanarajan, Senior Lecturer (Grade I) in Mathematics, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, was included. The faculty congratulates him on his outstanding research record in the year 2023.
Professor P. Ravirajan is listed among Asia’s Top 100 Scientists in the year 2024
Six leading Sri Lankan academics have been recognized in the prestigious “Asia’s Top 100 Scientists – 2024” list published by Asian Scientist magazine, Singapore, https://debasa.lk/?p=681.
Since 2016, Asian Scientist Magazine has annually published the Asian Scientist 100 list, celebrating Asia’s most outstanding researchers across diverse scientific fields. The list honours individuals who have received national or international awards, made significant scientific discoveries, or demonstrated exceptional leadership in academia or industry. Department of Physics is pleased to inform that Prof. Ravirajan, Senior Professor of Physics and Dean, Faculty of Science, has been included in this prestigious list for the year 2024, https://www.asianscientist.com/as100/#2024, in recognition of his impactful scientific contributions, exemplary academic leadership, receipt of several distinguished national awards, and success in securing international research grants.
CVCD Excellence Awards
Name of awardee | Dept. | Year of Award | Name of the ward |
Prof. P. Ravirajan | Physics | 2006 | Outstanding Young Researcher in Physical Sciences |
Prof. M. Thanihaichelvan | Physics | 2024 | Outstanding Young Researchers in Natural Science |
Presidential awards for Scientific publications
Name | Department | Years Award |
|---|---|---|
Prof. S.N. Surendran | Zoology | 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010- 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021 |
Prof. K. Kandasamy | Physics | 2000, 2001, 2003 |
Prof. P. Ravirajan | Physics | 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2017 |
Prof. K. Vignarooban | Physics | 2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016 |
Prof. M. Siyamalan | Computer Science | 2017 & 2018 |
Prof. A. Ramanan | Computer Science | 2019 |
Dr. T. Kokul | Computer Science | 2019 |
Dr. E. Y. A. Charles | Computer Science | 2010 |
Mr. K. Prashanthan | Physics | 2017 |
Prof. M. Thanihaichelvan | Physics | 2015 |
Prof. K. Gajapathy | Zoology | 2021 |
Ms. S. Kokila | Zoology | 2021 |
Mr. S. Arthiyan | Zoology | 2021 |
NRC Merit awards for Scientific publications
Name | Years Award | |
|---|---|---|
Prof. P. Ravirajan | Physics | 2015 |
Prof. P. Iyngaran | Chemistry | 2018 |
Prof. G. Sasikesh | Chemistry | 2018 |
Dr. A. Manjceeban | Chemistry | 2018 |
Petents
Name of the Inventors | Dept. | Patent No. with dates National/International | Status: Filed / Published /Sold |
Dr. M. Thanihaichelvan | Physics | Biosensor Device and Methods (US20210255184A1) | Published and Sold International |
Dr. M. Thanihaichelvan | Physics | Sensor Device and Methods (US20190346401A1) | Published and Sold International |
Mr. K. Harichandra | Fiheries | 21588(National) No. E03C1/05,F16K31/02 (International) | Filed (Classified) National |
Awards/prizes | Receptionised (s) | year | Awarding body | Remarks |
SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Award 2025 | Mr. B. Nimantha | 2025 | The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) | For Best innovative project – University Category at the Provincial Level |
CSSL ICT Researcher of the year 2023 Award | Dr. T. Kokul | 2024 | The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) | |
IEEE Sri Lanka Section Outstanding Advisor Award 2024 | Dr. R. Nirthika | 2025 | IEEE Sri Lanka Section | For her invaluable contribution as an Advisor of the IEEE Women in Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group of the University of Jaffna |
National Educator (Silver) Award 2024 | Prof. A. Ramanan | 2024 | SLIIT Innovate | In recognition of excellence in teaching, scholarly work, and national contribution in the discipline of Computing |
CSSL ICT Researcher of the year 2022 Award | Prof. A. Ramanan | 2023 | The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) | |
CSSL ICT Researcher of the year 2021 Award | Prof. M. Siyamalan | 2022 | The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) | |
Outstanding Branch Counsellor Award | Prof. A. Ramanan | 2022 | IEEE Sri Lankan Section | For exceptional and dedicated efforts as a Student Branch Counsellor – 2021 |
SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Award | Ms. M. Mayuravaani Dr. M. Siyamalan (S) | 2021 | The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) | For Best Innovative Project (University category) at the Provincial Level |
Young Scientist Award | Prof. P. Ravirajan | 2008 | SCOPUS, Elsevier Publisher, The Netherlands and National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka. | To four talented scientists who attain a high level of excellence in research work in any four fields from Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Medicine, Physics, and Mathematics |