Thusitha Arthanayaka, Ph.D. is a visiting Assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the Skidmore College (Aug 2020- present) at Saratoga Springs, NY.

He has received his Ph.D. from the Missouri S&T at Rolla, MO in 2016. Throughout his Ph.D. research, he has studied projectile coherent effects in the ionization of molecular Hydrogen (H2) and Helium (He) by proton impact under the direction of Dr. Michael Schulz. This specifically addressed the experimental and theoretical discrepancies in atomic scattering from ion projectiles.

After the successful completion of his doctoral studies, he has joined Columbia University in New York City (Jan 2017 - Dec 2019) as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist, where he was responsible for leading a series of experiments motivated by solar physics observations. He carried out electron density related spectroscopic measurements at the Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) facility located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, CA. These measurements will improve the scientific return of current and planned solar missions.

After that he joint the Colorado State University-Pueblo (Jan 2019 - Jul 2020) as a visiting Assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Mathematics. There he taught calculus-based physics, algebra-based physics, modern physics, and undergraduate laboratory classes. Also, he coordinated department undergraduate labs as well. Further, he mentored undergraduate students’ final thesis projects.

Thusitha earned his master’s degrees in physics at the same graduate institute in 2014. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2007, at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.