Pradeep Samarasekere

Pradeep Samarasekere has over 12 years of experience in the field of technology and science. From 2009 to 2015, they worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Houston, where they invented and implemented a novel, environmental friendly and efficient chemical process to recover rare earth metals from end-of-life consumer and industrial waste streams. Pradeep also designed and developed chemical methodologies for synthesis and characterization of novel inorganic-organic hybrid materials (metal-organic frameworks) with tailored physical properties, beneficial for energy and material applications. Additionally, they synthesized and characterized 32 new organic-inorganic hybrid materials belonging to six families of compounds exhibiting magnetic, dielectric and luminescence properties.

In 2015, Pradeep Samarasekere joined REEcycle Inc. as the Chief Technology Officer and Lead Scientist, where they co-invented and held the patent for the REEcycle's Rare-earth reclamation technology. Pradeep was also the Principal Investigator and co-author of a $750K NSF SBIR Phase II Grant and a $150K NSF SBIR Phase I Grant.

In 2017, Pradeep Samarasekere became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya. In 2018, they were appointed as the Director of the Industry Interaction Cell for Computing and Technology at the University of Kelaniya. In 2021, they were appointed as the Director of the University Business Linkage (UBL) Cell at the University of Kelaniya.

Pradeep Samarasekere obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the University of Houston in 2014. Prior to that, they earned a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computational Chemistry from the University of Colombo in 2008.