Macquarie University

Sri Lankan PhD candidate well-supported at Macquarie

“When I was thinking about a PhD, I went through the backgrounds and profiles of experts in the field of microwave and wireless communication,” says Sri Lankan PhD candidate Dushmantha Thalakotuna.

“One of the experts I looked into was Professor Karu Esselle from Macquarie, so I wrote to him and began discussing topics.” Sure enough, a few years down the track Dushmantha is now in his second year of a PhD within the Department of Electronic Engineering.

“I’m involved in the design and implementation of a special type of structures called periodic structures or metamaterials, which have received considerable attention within the microwave community in the past few decades. Periodic structures are popular within the microwave community because of some remarkable properties they exhibit.”

Dushmantha says PhD students at Macquarie are well-supported. “Macquarie encourages publication in well-regarded journals and internationally recognised conferences. The University’s Postgraduate Research Fund (PGRF) assists research candidates in attending international conferences and research visits.”

“Doing a PhD at Macquarie has given me the opportunity to work with external research organisations such as CSIRO and to conduct collaborative research work with Politecnico di Torino university in Italy.”

Dushmantha arrived in Australia in 2009 and says Sydney is an easy city to live in

“The best part of a PhD here is sharing different cultures. I’ve met people from all over the world and it’s been great to get to know their traditions. Also, within my research I’ve experienced the different ways various cultures think and learnt to respect them. With a different pattern of thinking, people come up with different solutions. It’s really interesting how different educational backgrounds affect the way people are trained to think.”

As a PhD candidate, Dushmantha has also had the opportunity to conduct tutorial classes for engineering undergraduate students and assist with robotics workshops and competitions for high school students. “Working with those students has been really fun. I enjoy teaching and sharing knowledge,” says Dushmantha, who would like to pursue a career in teaching and research.

Read more about the Higher Degree Research at Macquarie or the Department of Electronic Engineering.