Dr. Medha Gunaratna

Dr. A. G. Medha Jaimini Gunaratna is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Kansas State University, USA, where her research focused on the design, synthesis, and bio-evaluation of bioactive small molecules and peptides with therapeutic potential. She also earned a B.Sc. Special Degree in Chemical Biology from the University of Colombo and the Graduateship in Chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon.
Dr. Gunaratna has teaching experience across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, in synthetic organic chemistry, spectroscopy, medicinal chemistry, and natural products chemistry.
Her research encompasses multistep organic synthesis, natural product chemistry, medicinal chemistry, computational drug design, and in-vitro/in-silico bioactivity evaluation. She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications, accumulating 130 citations, with an h-index of 4 and an i10-index of 3. Dr Gunaratna actively supervises 01 PhD, 02 M.Phil., 05 M.Sc., and 10 undergraduate research students, and has supervised 01 M.Phil., 14 M.Sc. and 18 undergraduate research students.
In addition, she makes significant contributions to scientific committees and professional bodies, including the Institute of Chemistry, Ceylon, the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), and the Young Scientists Forum, serving in various capacities. She has served as Honorary Joint Secretary of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon during the Council years 2021/22, 2023/24, and 2024/25, and as the Secretary of both the Awards Committee and the Salary and Cadre Committee, in 2021/22 and 2023/24. In addition, she has served as the Secretary of Section E2 (Chemical Sciences) of SLAAS for the 2024 Council year, and as Secretary of the Environment Committee of SLAAS in 2023.