Harshica Fernando

Harshica Fernando
Harshica Fernando, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Education

  • B.Sc. (Honors), Chemistry University of Colombo, Sri Lanka -1991
  • PhD.  Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL – 1998

Research Interests

  • Kinetics and mechanisms of interaction of nanoparticles with environmental pollutants, and DNA interactions with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nanoparticles.
  • Lipidomics: Lipid analysis of food, their relevance to fatty liver disease.
  • Evaluation of food contaminants using analytical methods and assays and development of sensitive assays for detection of contaminants (collaboration).
  • Molecular modelling of (i) DNA interactions with methylating agents, (ii) metal-ligand complexes and cellobiose interactions (collaboration). 

Teaching Interests

  • General, physical and analytical Chemistry.
  • Courses at PVAMU: Undergraduate – General Chemistry I&II (lecture & lab), Quantitative analysis (lecture & lab), Physical Chemistry I (lecture & lab), Physical Chemistry II (lecture), Instrumental analysis (lecture & lab).
  • Graduate – Instrumental analysis (lecture & lab), Advanced Analytical Chemistry and Advanced Physical Chemistry.

Selected Research Publications

  1. Williams, B., Gautam, I., Grady, T., and Fernando H. Redox Properties and Temperature Dependence of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized using Pasteurized Cow and Goat Milk. Green chemistry letters and reviews. 2022, 15, 69-80.
  2. Fernando, H and Amarasekara, A. S. The effect of Dicarboxylic acid catalyst structure on hydrolysis of CelluloseModel compound D-Cellobiose in water. Current Organocatalysis: 2021, vol 8.
  3. Fernando, H and Amarasekara, A. S. Interactions of Cellulose Model compound D-Cellobiose with selected metal chlorides in water: identification of Chelating oxygen atoms. Euro. Org. Chem. 2021, 4968-4973.
  4. Rowe, G. R., Fernando, H., Elfrink, C., Ansari, S., Sullivan, J., Heathman, T., Quigg, A., Petronella, S., Wade, T., and Santsch, P.H. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston bay, Texas, USA. PLoS One 15, e0243734, 2020.
  5. Fernando, H., Ju, H., Kakumanu, R., Bhopale, K.K., Croisant, S., Elferink, C., Kaphalia, B.S., and Ansari, G.A.S. Distribution of petrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in seafood following Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 145, 200-207, 2019.
  6. Amarasekara, A. S., Ali, S. R., Fernando, H., Sena, V., and Timofeeva, T. V. A comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous Bronsted acid catalysts in the reactions of meso-erythritol with aldehyde/ketones. SN Applied Sciences 1, 212, 2019.   
  7. Fernando, H., Jackson, D., Huang, M., Ansari, S., Howarth, M., Mesaros, C., Penning, T., and Elferink, C. Using Precision Environmental Health Principles in Risk Evaluation and Communication of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. New Solutions 28, 599–616, 2019.
  8. Sullivan, J., Croisant, S., Howarth, M., Rowe, G. T., Fernando, H., Phillips-Savoy, A., Jackson, D.,  Prochaska, J., Ansari, G. A. S., Penning, T. M., Elferink, C., and community partners. Building and Maintaining a Citizen Science Network with Fishermen and Fishing Communities Post Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Using a CBPR Approach. New Solutions. 28,416-417, 2018.
  9. Fernando, H., Bhopale, K.K., Kondraganti, S., Kaphalia, B.S., and Ansari, G.A.S., Alcohol Induced Hepatic Steatosis: A Comparative Study to Identify Possible Indicators(s) of Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. J of Drug and Alcohol Res. Vol 7, 2018.
  10. Bhopale, K.K., Kondraganti, S., Fernando, H., Boor, P.J., Kaphalia, B.S., and Ansari, G.A.S., Alcoholic Steatosis in Different Strains of Rats. J of Drug and Alcohol Res. Vol 4: 2015.
  11. Fernando, H., Wiktorowicz, J.E., Soman, K.V., Kaphalia, B.S., Khan, M.F. and Ansari, G.A.S., Liver proteomics in progressive alcoholic steatosis. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 266: 470-480, 2013.
  12. Fernando, H., Bhopale, K.K., Boor, P.J., Ansari, G.A.S. and Kaphalia, B.S., Hepatic lipid profiling of deer mice fed ethanol using 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy: A dose-dependent subchronic study. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol, 264:361-369, 2012.