‘I still love getting my hands dirty’
Prof. Mohan Edirisinghe (left): Receiving one of his many awards
The Queen’s New Year Honours List for 2021 announced recently includes Prof. Mohan Edirisinghe, biomedical engineer and Bonfield Chair of Biomaterials, University College London (UCL). Later this year, the Queen will decorate the Sri Lankan-born scientist with the medal that bears her grandparents’ profiles – a traditional honour at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle that Dr. Edirisinghe is looking forward to.
The chivalric order Officer of the British Empire will fete Dr. Edirisinghe for the many years spent pursuing advanced materials processing, forming and manufacturing research- in particular propagating his research on healthcare and manufacturing internationally to a wide interdisciplinary audience.
Dr. Edirisinghe had his primary and secondary education at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia and then joined the University of Sri Lanka to read Materials, a new course set up by the British Council and the University of Leeds, UK. He could easily have followed the conventional path to engineering but “chose Materials instead as it was visionary and novel – two things I seek”.
He would later join the University of Leeds for his Masters and then a doctorate and later a doctor of science (DSc) degree, all in the discipline of Materials Science and Engineering.
His academic interest in materials and engineering led to biomedical engineering. When in 2017 Dr. Edirisinghe was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the citation below was read- encapsulating his work:
“Mohan Edirisinghe has systematically and continuously pioneered both fundamental and user-inspired engineering research, leading to remarkable progress and international excellence in processing and forming advanced materials. He has invented many manufacturing processes and devices for the preparation of microbubbles, particles, capsules and fibres and has been awarded numerous prizes for his research, including the Royal Society Brian Mercer Feasibility Award for an unprecedented three times (2005, 2009 and 2013). His seminal work has resulted in innovative engineering outcomes that have had enormous impact on industrial practice on a global scale, greatly advancing areas crucial to the betterment of life for humankind, such as optimal drug delivery, smart orthopaedic coatings and the translation of novel medical technologies from the laboratoryto clinical practice.”
Even with 500 journal papers published and 14,500 citations, the zenith of his career, Prof. Edirisinghe reckons, remains working with a large research team and graduating 100 odd PhD students, in particular 41 students to-date at UCL.
“I really enjoy the diversity of that operation,” he says. He also likes competing, and has won many prizes and 43 UK Research Council grants.
A brainchild close to his heart is the taught masters course (MSc) in Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering he created. This is a course at the interface of Engineering-Physical Science/Life Science-Medicine and allied disciplines. It has to-date graduated over 300 students, working in research, industry and regulatory bodies worldwide.
Some of the most rewarding moments, however, remain when his research (as often has happened) gets translated into inventions and patents. In 2010 he won the Venture Prize and this helped him set up AtoCap. In the near future, the products and clinical application of AtoCap will become hugely beneficial to people worldwide- as targeted antibiotic delivery for chronic urinary tract infections- a common infectious disease affecting over 10 million patients per year globally, and particularly the growing elderly population.
Adds Dr. Edirisinghe, “I have also been very pleased to see my manufacturing for healthcare technology helping in the anti-pandemic science and technology as featured by United Press International under science news on October 14th 2020.”
In the meantime, in his lab, gas taps run and serious youths are always at work.
“I still love working with the researchers and getting my hands dirty, I never wanted to be an administrator,” says Dr. Edirisinghe. “In the lab we do innovative, adventurous and translational research which inspires my day, and has continued to do so over decades… Many good thoughts come from group work.”