Lab Members

Research Area

• Atomistic Simulations
• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
• Hydrogen Production, Transportation, and Storage
• Oilfield Chemistry

Biography

Uvin De Alwis is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. His current research, in collaboration with Professor Ryosuke Okuno (since 2025), focuses on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

Uvin integrates atomistic simulations with experiments to help optimize CCUS processes. Prior to joining UT Austin, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University, where he employed computational chemistry approaches to design and discover low-dimensional materials for energy storage and conversion. He also brings industrial experience from his role as a Research and Development Chemist at Flintec Transducers in Sri Lanka, where he worked on optimizing strain gauge production.

Education

• Ph.D. in Chemistry (2024), Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA
• M.S. in Chemistry (2023), Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA
• B.S. in Computational Chemistry (2018), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Representative Publications

• W. M. Uvin G. De Alwis, K. L. D. M Weerawardene, K. L. Shuford, Highly Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting in Phosphorene-Graphene Quantum Dot van der Waals Heterostructures: An Ab Initio Approach J. Phys. Chem. C 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c04286)
• W. M. Uvin G. De Alwis, K. L. Shuford, Anisotropic Behavior of Optical Properties in Edge-Modified Phosphorene Quantum Dots J. Phys. Chem. C 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c01463) ·
• T. L. Ellington, D. P. Devore, W. M. Uvin G. De Alwis, K. A. French, K. L. Shuford, Shedding Light on the Vibrational Signatures in Halogen-Bonded Graphitic Carbon Nitride Building Blocks ChemPhysChem 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.202200812)