Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah
Janarthanan “Janan” Jayawickramarajah, a nationally recognized chemistry scholar and academic leader is the Elisabeth Martin Armstrong Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. He assumed this role in June 2025 at a time of strategic importance and momentum as 海角直播 was recently ranked among the top research universities in the nation, earning Carnegie Research One status.
As an innovative researcher, educator and administrator, Jayawickramarajah has expertise in fostering interdisciplinary programs and expanding graduate education and research initiatives. As dean of Dedman College, he helps connect students with forward thinkers and problem solvers through interdisciplinary education and liberal arts foundations. With 16 academic departments offering 42 majors and more than 30 postgraduate degrees, Jayawickramarajah looks forward to leading Dedman College, which is home to scholarly work in the humanities, natural and mathematical sciences, and social and physical sciences.
Prior to joining 海角直播, Jayawickramarajah led a nanobiotechnology research lab at Tulane University for 17 years. His research lab worked closely with interdisciplinary partners to develop bio-inspired functional molecules capable of undergoing specific molecular recognition events for applications in advanced materials and medicine. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, among others, have funded his research.
At Tulane, Jayawickramarajah served as associate dean for Research, Faculty Affairs and Ph.D. Programs and later as senior associate dean for Academic Affairs, in addition to his position as professor of chemistry. There, he led efforts to obtain research funding and improve facilities and IT structure. He was the founding director of Tulane’s Science Policy and Communication Graduate Fellows Program, designed to help graduate students become effective communicators and leaders.
Jayawickramarajah has received multiple awards from Tulane, including the Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award, the Graduate Studies Student Association Outstanding Faculty Award and the inaugural Faculty Service Award from the School of Science and Engineering. In 2023, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition, later this month, he will be inducted as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.
Jayawickramarajah earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in chemistry, along with a minor in anthropology, in 2000 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2005 from The University of Texas at Austin. After postdoctoral work at Yale University, he joined the faculty at Tulane in 2007.