Crosby Colloquium Series
Maheshika Palihawadana,
Associate Professor, Physics & Astronomy
Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 12 -1pm
Trafton Center 122 (TC122)
What more can we do with Iron Oxide nanoparticles?
The main purpose of my sabbatical leave request for the spring semester of 2025 was to continue and expand my current research and collaborations.
My ongoing research work is mainly focused on one particular application of magnetic Iron Oxide nanoparticles; Magnetic and Light induced heat generation of Iron oxide nanoparticles for potential cancer therapy. During my sabbatical leave, I was able to successfully complete a research project on this topic involving a Biomedical science major undergraduate student. This work titled “Magnetic Hyperthermia and Laser Induced Photothermal Effect of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Potential Cancer Therapy” was presented (poster) during the Spring 2025 undergraduate Research symposium and the Biological Sciences Research Symposium here at Minnesota State University.
In addition to that, I was able to invest a good amount of my sabbatical leave to explore and study the literature on other various applications of magnetic materials. This included exploring different sample preparations methods, different data acquiring methods, analysis done etc. Based on these findings, I was able to develop and initiate few multidisciplinary research projects on different applications of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles that can be carried out here with the available resources in collaboration with some other departments involving out undergraduate and graduate students. I will be presenting some selected project outlines during this talk.
Please join us for next week’s talk with:
- Dr. Michael Rutkowski, Associate Professor, Physics & Astronomy
- Topic: Multi-Wavelength Astrophysics in the lab and classroom
