ICTP Associate Bandara Karunaratne has spent much of his career putting physics to work to help boost the economy of his native country Sri Lanka.

Moulding the Future

Bandara Karunaratne

Sri Lanka is a small island-nation that lies like a tear-drop off the southern coast of India. Rich in cultural traditions and blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the tranquility of this island-nation has been shattered by violent ethnic upheavals in the northern province of Tamil, which have left thousands of people dead and a once-pleasing landscape scarred and battered.
ICTP Regular Associate (1997-2002) Bandara Karunaratne, a Sri Lankan materials physicist, is determined to help put his native land, which the world has often associated with tea, coconuts and rubber, back on track by improving its capacity for scientific training and research. He has been particularly interested in investigating potential commercial applications of native materials.
"I received my undergraduate degree in physics in 1971 from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and earned my doctorate in materials physics from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom in 1980," explains Karunaratne. "Immediately following my graduation, I worked for a local timber firm, where I examined the physical properties of the harvested lumber to assess its durability after it was treated with borax, a preservative."
As a graduate student, Karunaratne broadened his materials research at the University of Warwick to encompass silicon nitride ceramics. "I wanted to investigate the microstructure and fracture properties of these materials when subjected to extremely high temperatures and pressures," he notes. "The ways in which the materials respond to these conditions tell us a lot about their durability. That, in turn, could have important implications for their use in motor engines or cutting tools."
While completing his doctorate, Karunaratne, in collaboration with the Lucas Research Group in the United Kingdom, conducted research helping to illustrate that silicon nitride could serve as a more efficient and longer lasting machine-cutting material than carbon- and steel-cutting materials then in use. The research eventually bore fruit in commercial applications under the trademark syalon, which has found widespread use in the cutting tool industry.
Karunaratne returned to Sri Lanka in 1980, assuming a teaching position in the department of physics at the University of Peradeniya. While attending to his teaching responsibilities, Karunaratne also developed an active research agenda. Drawing on his knowledge and previous training in materials physics, he devoted a great deal of time examining the structural integrity and durability of local ceramics--porcelains, bricks and tiles.
"My goal," Karunaratne notes, "has been to enhance the applicability of these ceramics in the manufacture of materials ranging from dinner plates to turbine blades." Most recently, he has investigated the potential for ceramic rotary seals to replace alumina seals in water pumps. "Since clay is much cheaper than alumina and since our testing suggests that the ceramic seals would be more durable, the research holds much promise for possible commercial applications."

A key to Karunaratne's success is explained by the ties he has established with other institutions. The International Programme in Physical Sciences (IPPS) at the University of Uppsala in Sweden offers both laboratory equipment and student fellowships, and the University of Warwick sends materials used in experiments and provides valuable lines of communication with former teachers and colleagues. Meanwhile, his status as ICTP Associate has enabled him to spend seven weeks last fall in Trieste, where he has taken advantage of the Centre's library, internet facilities and proximity to other well-respected scientific institutions to "stock up on information that will undoubtedly prove invaluable to my research and development activities when I return home."
The Centre's close relationship with the University of Trieste has allowed Karunaratne to develop ties with Italian researchers as well as to take advantage of the university's electronmicroscopic facilities to conduct experiments that would be impossible to do back home. Trieste's scientific facilities have also opened a new world to Uthpala Dahanayake, a youthful Sri Lankan researcher who has accompanied Karunaratne as an 'ICTP young collaborator.' "Sergio Meriani and Valter Sergo, professors at the Materials Engineering Department of the University of Trieste, have been particularly helpful in strengthening the links between ICTP, their university and my institution. It's all part of a growing network of scientific interaction that would be impossible to build without the Centre's long-standing reputation both in Italy and abroad."

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