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Nethmi De Alwis receives Global Marie Curie Fellowship for post-doctoral research

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Nethmi De Alwis (photo by Scott Kissell).

Nethmi De Alwis, a doctoral student in chemistry at Miami University, received a Global Marie Curie Global Fellowship from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Programme.

The MSCA is part of the European Union flagship fellowship program for researchers in the European Union or associated countries. The Global Marie Curie Fellowship funds cover two years of living and travel expenses.

The highly competitive fellowship will allow De Alwis to work in the lab group of Athina Anasasaki, assistant professor of polymer materials, at ETH Zurich, university for science and technology in Zurich, Switzerland.

De Alwis, a native of Sri Lanka, is a fifth-year doctoral student with adviser Dominik Konkolewicz, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Her research focuses on different dynamic chemistries and how polymer architectural features can affect the properties of dynamic materials.

She plans to complete her dissertation work and graduate this summer, and join Anasasaki’s lab group in September. There, she will conduct research on a project that merges the expertise she gained in the Konkolewicz lab at Miami and the expertise of Anasasaki, De Alwis said. 

She encourages other students to "not wait for a perfect opportunity, instead try to grab any opportunity and make it perfect".

De Alwis is the recipient of several awards at Miami, including the 2020-2021 Dissertation Scholar Award in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and the 2020 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) People’s Choice Award.