astronomy

Hemamala Karunadasa

Hemamala Karunadasa is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hemamala Karunadasa rather than just read about it. In short: Hemamala Indivari Karunadasa is an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford University. She works on hybrid organic – inorganic materials, such as perovskites, for clean energy and large area lighting.

Key takeaways

Hemamala Karunadasa belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Hemamala Karunadasa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hemamala Indivari Karunadasa is an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford University. She works on hybrid organic – inorganic materials, such as perovskites, for clean energy and large area lighting.

Early life and education Karunadasa grew up in Colombo. She attended high school in Sri Lanka and was a student at Ladies' College, Colombo. She thought that she would become a doctor, and eventually decided to apply to university in America. She attended Princeton University, where she worked with Robert Cava on the geometric magnetic frustration of metal oxides. Cava's excitement about research inspired Karunadasa to continue her own academic career. Graduating with a degree in chemistry and a certificate in materials science and engineering, Karunadasa joined the University of California, Berkeley for her doctoral studies. There she worked in the lab of Jeffrey R. Long on heavy-atom building units for magnetic materials and electrocatalysts for water splitting. Karunadasa continued her work on water-splitting electrocatalysts with Jeffrey R. Long and Christopher Chang as a postdoctoral fellow. The molybdenum-oxo metal complex synthesized by Karunadasa is around seventy times cheaper than platinum, the most commonly used metal catalyst in water splitting. She then moved to the California Institute of Technology, where she worked on catalysts for hydrocarbon oxidation with Harry B. Gray as a BP Postdoctoral Fellow.

Career Karunadasa began her independent career at Stanford University in 2012. Her group synthesizes hybrid perovskite materials that combine small organic molecules with inorganic solids. Three-dimensional lead iodide perovskites are being investigated for solar cells, but they can be both unstable and toxic. For example, their sensitivity to water makes them difficult materials to use in the fabrication of large-scale devices. Karunadasa is interested in ways to mitigate these shortcomings, and any transient changes that may occur when these materials absorb light. In particular, Karunadasa has created two-dimensional perovskites, with thin inorganic sheets, that can be tuned to emit every colour of visible light. In these systems the organic small molecules are sandwiched between the sheets. In the case of thick inorganic sheets, the inorganic materials act as absorbers, and enhance the stability of the perovskite materials. The organo-metal-halide perovskites created by Karunadasa and her collaborator Michael D. McGehee can be processed in solution. She believes that through careful chemical design it is possible to determine the fate of photogenerated charge carriers. Karunadasa has investigated the lifetimes of acoustic phonons in lead iodide perovskites with Michael Toney and Aron Walsh.

Awards and honours Her awards and honours include;

2003 Princeton University Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis in Inorganic Chemistry 2006 Tyco Electronics Graduate Fellowship 2011 BP Postdoctoral Fellowship 2013 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award 2014 International Conference on Coordination Chemistry ICCC41 Rising Star Award 2014 National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2015 Sloan Research Fellowship 2015 Stanford University Terman Faculty Fellowship 2020 American Chemical Society Harry Gray Award

Selected publications Her publications include;

Smith, Ian C.; Hoke, Eric; Solis-Ibarra, Diego; McGehee, Michael; Karunadasa, Hemamala (2014-09-04). "A layered hybrid perovskite solar‐cell absorber with enhanced moisture stability". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53 (42): 11232–11235. doi:10.1002/anie.201406466. PMID 25196933. Karunadasa, Hemamala; Montalvo, Elizabeth; Sun, Yujie; Majda, Marcin; Long, Jeffrey; Chang, Christopher (2012). "A molecular MoS2 edge site mimic for catalytic hydrogen generation". Science. 335 (6069): 698–702. Bibcode:2012Sci...335..698K. doi:10.1126/science.1215868. PMID 22323816. S2CID 7422855. Hoke, Erik; Daniel, Slotcavage; Dohner, Emma; Bowring, Andrea; Karunadasa, Hemamala; McGehee, Michael (2015). "Reversible photo-induced trap formation in mixed-halide hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics". Chemical Science. 6 (1): 613–617. doi:10.1039/C4SC03141E. PMC 5491962. PMID 28706629. Her work was featured in the Journal of the American Chemical Society Young Investigators Issue in 2019. She serves on the editorial board of Inorganic Chemistry.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hemamala Karunadasa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hemamala Karunadasa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hemamala Karunadasa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hemamala Karunadasa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hemamala Karunadasa

In research: Hemamala Karunadasa appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hemamala Karunadasa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hemamala Karunadasa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Inorganic chemists, Living people, Princeton University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hemamala Karunadasa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hemamala Karunadasa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hemamala Karunadasa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hemamala Karunadasa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hemamala Karunadasa in simple terms?

Why does Hemamala Karunadasa matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hemamala Karunadasa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hemamala Karunadasa.