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 | Biography |  |
phone: +61 7 336-58853; Fax: +61 7 336-51688
Dr. Amitha Hewavitharana obtained her B.Sc. from the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka), M.Sc. from the university of Victoria (B.C., Canada) and PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Alberta (Canada). Following that, she held brief research positions at the Massey University (New Zealand) and NZ Leather Research Institute. She then held a research scientist position at the NZ Dairy Research Institute (NZDRI, currently Fonterra Research) for 4 years before moving to Australia in 1997. In Australia, she commenced her career as a lecturer in analytical chemistry at the University of Western Sydney, and then at QUT until 2001. Following that, she held research positions in CSIRO (food science) and in QHSS (investigative chemistry) before joining the school of pharmacy in 2004.
Research
Stemming from her PhD in analytical chemistry her research has primarily focused on developing analytical methods for a variety of applications including:
- metal speciation and metabolite analysis in biological fluids, water and waste water
- nutrients and antioxidants in dairy foods and meat products,
- quantitation of psychoactive components in hemp leaves and
- rapid method development using spectroscopy combined with chemometrics.
Over the past 20 years, her research outcomes were achieved using a wide variety of instrumentation such as, HPLC -MS-MS, -PDA, -fluorescence, -EC etc, IC, GC-MS, HPCE, AAS, NIR, FTIR, FIA. Current projects include: developing new drug assays, characterization of antibiotics in marine sponge bacteria, environmental toxicology, neutraceutical research involving tropical fruits, and developing assays for metabolites (such as paracetamols, purines and pyrimidines, endorphins) and marker compounds (such as sinistrin, fluconazole, pindolol and p-amino hippuric acid) in biological fluids.
Her interests also include method validation and laboratory quality assurance in line with ISO 17025 and she is a NATA technical assessor.
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