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Mini-interview with Prof. S. Ravi P. Silva

sexta-feira, 27 de setembro de 2024 10:51

Sembukuttiarachilage Ravi Pradip Silva (S. Ravi P. Silva) is a renowned scientist and engineer, currently serving as Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey (United Kingdom) and Director of the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) of the university. Since joining Surrey in 1995 after completing his studies at the University of Cambridge, he has led cutting-edge research in nanoelectronics and sustainable technologies. At the university, he is also the head of the Nanoelectronics Centre (NEC) and a member of the Sustainability Executive Committee, focused on achieving Carbon Net Zero. Additionally, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Energy and Environmental Materials (Wiley).

Professor Silva has made significant contributions to the field of nanotechnology and solar energy, leading international research projects. He has been an influential figure in establishing nanotechnology in Sri Lanka, advising the government and helping set up the Sri Lanka Institute of NanoTechnology and the Nanoscience Park NANCO Ltd.

With over 650 journal articles, 50 patents, 31,000 citations, and an H-index of 89, he is a prolific researcher. His work has earned him numerous honors, including being appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Arts, and the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka. He received awards from the Royal Society, Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3), Institute of Physics, UNESCO among others.

On the morning of September 30th, this important scientist will be in the city of Santos, Brazil, giving an invited lecture about the design of multifunctional coatings and engineered surfaces for next generation technologies at the symposium Surface Engineering, organized by the National Institute of Surface Engineering within the XXII B-MRS Meeting.

See the mini-interview he gave us before his trip to Brazil.

What role can Surface Engineering play in sustainable development, especially in emerging market countries?

S. Ravi P. Silva: In all engineering products, whether it be in large scale wind turbines, to the fabric of your clothing, to the chassis of a Formula-1 car or airplane, to the surface of a pharmaceutical tablet, to the catalyst that helps produce organic molecules or fertilizer, they all need to have a surface, typically solid, that needs to be optimised for its functional application. Surface engineering allows that optimum surface to be produced, in order to make the activity more efficient, faster, cheaper, stronger and longer lasting. In the case of sustainable development, this sort of surface engineering allows one to produce functional products that give rise to higher efficiency wind turbines, more energy efficient vehicles, higher quality turbines say for hydroelectricity, higher efficiency batteries, longer lasting systems due to ceramic coatings etc. All critical for high value technology products.

What are the research topics that you see as most promising or relevant in the field of surfaces?

S. Ravi P. Silva: There are many research topics that depend critically on high quality surfaces. If you take the whole field of nanotechnology, one could say it differentiates itself from bulk materials due to the higher surface to volume ratio present. This higher surface to volume results in highly (re-)active interfaces, that are central to advanced optical coatings and metamaterials, catalyst particles and energy storage devices such as supercapacitors, highly advanced sensors for biological and environmental monitoring, electronic devices, systems in all fields that use materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes and MXenes, and the list goes on. Most modern research topics in energy, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, optical and structural coatings, advanced manufacturing, or any nano-designed devices and systems etc. all depend critically on suitable surface engineering.

Fonte: Gerência de Comunicação do Instituto Nacional de Engenharia de Superfícies