Dr. Gurusinghe was recently announced a recipient of the 2025-2026 TTU Faculty Research Grant (FRG) under the tenure-track category for ongoing research collecting the rotational spectra of 4-Methylstyrene. This is part of a larger project investigating the quantum tunneling in a series of methylated styrenes. Congrats Dr. Gurusinghe!
News
Chemistry Banquet 2025
Congratulations to Mitch, Thusthia, and Randi for receiving Student Research Grants this year.
Additional congrats to Randi for receiving the Northrup Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award! We are very proud of her!
An additional shoutout to Mitch for receiving both the outstanding junior award and the receiving the ACS Inorganic Student Award! Congratulations Mitch!
Environmental Biology Colloquium
Cadence presented at an environmental science colloquium discussing overall instrumentation and application for future works.
“L-Shaped FTMW Spectrometer With Narrowband And Broadband Capabilities Integrated With A Python Interface” – Cadence Miller, (G)
National American Chemical Society Meeting 2025
“Exploring the Quantum Tunneling and Structural Mysteries of Methylstyrenes: Insights from Spectroscopy and Computational Chemistry” – Mitch Swann, (UG) left
“Unveiling Hydrogen Bond Networks: A Computational Spectroscopic Study of Guaiacol-Water Interactions” – Randi Padikoralage, (G) right
XVI Conference of Young Researchers in Atomic and Molecular Physics (J2IFAM25) 2025
Cadence got to visit Valladolid, Spain for an engaging conference focused on uplifting graduate and post-graduate students as they share research in physical chemistry and physics. Congrats Cadence!
Cadence Miller, Marton Varga, Rusiru PH Rajapaksha, Dr. Ranil M. Gurusinghe. Custom Python Code for Data Acquisition for TN Tech’s New FTMW Cavity Spectrometer. XVI Conference of Young Researchers in Atomic and Molecular Physics. February 26th, 2025.
Randi and Thusitha presented their project proposal
November & December 2024
Congratulations to Randi and Thusitha for passing their project proposal!
Introducing a New Physical Chemistry Lab!
In the fall semester of 2024, the physical chemistry 1 students were offered a bonus lab that incorporated microwave spectroscopy and computational chemistry. The lab was written by Dr. Gurusinghe and undergraduate researcher Madeline Kidder. Madeline worked with Cadence Miller, recent PhD student, to teach and facilitate the lab.
The image to the left shows the students working in our physical chemistry computational lab working and learning how to run files through Gaussian 09.
Tennessee Academy of Science 2024
Randi presented at TAS and won second place in the chemistry student oral presentations! “Unraveling Hydrogen Bonding Competition: How Water Reshapes the Geometry of Guaiacol” Talk by Randi
Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) 2024
Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions
Visiting professor Dan M. Neumark, the Chancellor’s Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkely’s College of Chemistry, presented two lectures as a part of the Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions that TN Tech received last year. There was also an accompanying mini symposium for chemistry students to present current research. We were all thrilled to have met him and to discuss research with another physical chemist!
2023 Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions Recipients – Dreyfus Foundation
Gru Lab Posters Present at Mini Symposium
Exploring Near-Free Rotor Limit Quantum Tunneling and Molecular Geometries of 3-Methylstyrene Conformations. Thusitha S Jayasekara, Cadence Miller, Dinesh Marasinghe, Mitchell Swann, Michael Carrillo1, Michael Tubergen1, Isabelle Kleiner2, and Ranil Gurusinghe.
Conformational Analysis of 1,5-pentanediol by Microwave Spectroscopy. Mitchell Swann, Michael J. Tubergen1, Dinesh Marasinghe1, and Michael J. Carrillo1
A Python-Based Automation and Data Acquisition Solution for Cavity-Based Microwave
Spectroscopy. Varga Marton, Cadence Miller, Rusiru PH Rajapaksha and Ranil M. Gurusinghe.
The Upgrades to the Cavity-based Microwave Setup in Tennessee Tech’s L-Shaped Spectrometer. Rusiru PH Rajapaksha, Cadence Miller, Thusitha S. Jayasekara, Randi IDK Padikoralage, Marton Varga, and Ranil M. Gurusinghe.
The Upgrades to the Chirped Pulse Microwave Setup in Tennessee Tech’s L-Shaped Spectrometer. Randi IDK Padikoralage, Rusiru PH Rajapaksha, Thushitha S Jayasekara, Madeline R. Kidder, Vasilisa Khodyakova and Ranil M. Gurusinghe.
1Kent State University
2 Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systemes Atmospheriques (LISA)