Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Remembering Rohan Jayasundera

“It is with heavy hearts and immeasurable sadness that we share with you the news that Rohan Jayasundera has passed,” says a notification on the Physics and Astronomy department’s website.

Jayasundera passed away on July 18.

“Rohan worked as a phone installer for Bell while he completed his undergrad degree (’84) and started full time work here as a lab demonstrator after graduation,” his colleagues write. “He was involved first in teaching labs (some now defunct) and looked after Phys 111L 112L 353L courses for over a decade. He was given an opportunity to teach Phys 111 and 112 lectures, a role that he excelled in. He received a distinguished teacher award in his first-year lecturing, and was soon promoted to continuing lecturer and undergraduate advisor.”

“Rohan was a master physics teacher, setting the standard for all to aspire.  Over the years he taught first-year students — most often engineers — the basics of Newtonian mechanics with energy, enthusiasm, and empathy. Not only did he know the names of each student in his classes, he also got to know many of them personally: their interests, their backgrounds, and their ideals. His office hours were perpetually populated by curious students seeking his friendly and encouraging style accompanying a razor-sharp mind. Students always came first for Rohan, and they knew it. He often selflessly arranged unofficial help sessions on Saturday mornings to ensure all were supported.”

“Rohan had a rare blend of humility and shrewdness that made him a model departmental citizen. He knew how to navigate the university system, always with the highest goals and best intentions. He sought to improve the teaching profile of the department by mentoring junior faculty and organizing teaching workshops. He sought-out new and better teaching methods implementing those that improved the classroom experience.” 

“Rohan was a devoted father, husband, and man of faith. He loved cricket, hockey, and bad jokes.”

According to a profile in The Entangler, the Physics and Astronomy alumni newsletter, Jayasundera was the first Faculty Associate for what is now known as the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE). In 2007, he won a prestigious Leadership in Faculty Training (LIFT) award, and in 2015 he was the recipient of an Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) Teaching Award. He was named the first Senior Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Science and held that position until 2016. He is featured in the CTE’s Teaching Stories series.

He retired from the University in January 2019. “During his career, Rohan has been of immeasurable value to the thousands of undergraduate and graduate students he has interacted with at the University of Waterloo,” said a note from the Physics and Astronomy department on the occasion of his retirement.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. tonight at the Henry Walser Funeral Home on Frederick Street in Kitchener, with prayers taking place at 7:45 p.m. The Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, August 3 at 1:30 p.m. at St. Michael’s Catholic Church on University Avenue. The service will be livestreamed. A reception will immediately follow.

New method helps to determine what medications breastfeeding mothers can take

It’s World Breastfeeding Week this week, and University of Waterloo Pharmacy researchers have developed a novel metric for an underserved research area to aid healthcare providers in advising on maternal medication use for breastfeeding mothers or nursing persons.

Breastfeeding while taking medication is often questioned, with medical practitioners erring on the side of caution and advising breastfeeding mothers not to use medications. However, considerations of medication use while breastfeeding may stop the mother’s own important drug therapy or lead to the discontinuation of breastfeeding.

“The limited information on medication use during lactation has created a significant knowledge gap that directly impacts a vulnerable population due to the exclusion of lactating persons and infants from the drug development process,” said Dr. Cindy Yeung, lead author of a paper detailing the research and a recent PhD graduate.

Dr. Yeung and colleagues have developed a new metric using mathematical modelling to aid healthcare providers in medication prescribing for those who breastfeed their infants.

“We developed the novel Upper Area Under the Curve Ratio (UAR) metric using physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling to help a population that is often left out of scientific research,” said Yeung.

PBPK modelling simulates a virtual person and represents how a drug moves in a body through mathematical functions. Through this modelling, researchers can understand how much of the drug is present in the breastmilk and whether it will be transferred to the infant.

The UAR metric incorporates major factors that the current metrics lack to define risk to the breastfeeding infant: the anatomy and physiology of the infant, age-related changes in breastmilk volume consumed and variability in infant exposure. One source of variability is pharmacogenotype – a genetic variant that may lead to an increased or decreased ability of the mother or infant to excrete the drug.

“The UAR metric uses an estimated drug dose from breastmilk that is then given to virtual infants to assess likely drug exposures and to identify characteristics of those infants that may be at increased risk to high exposures. This brings researchers one step closer to understanding the response or the adverse effects you might see in infants,” Yeung said.

By implementing the UAR metric into existing informational resources, healthcare providers will have more confidence to advise on maternal medication use informed by evidence, with the potential to directly impact the quality of life for the maternal-infant pair.

Yeung’s work was mainly funded by CIHR, including the Canada Graduates Scholarship – Doctoral Award and Michael Smith Foreign Studies Supplements. Further research in this area is currently being conducted by Andrea Edginton, PhD, Hallman director at Waterloo Pharmacy, Santosh Suryavanshi, PhD, research associate at Waterloo Pharmacy and Paola Mian, PharmD, PhD, clinical pharmacist & pharmacologist-researcher at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

The study, co-authored by Drs. Yeung, Sherilyn Houle, Philip Anderson, Brookie Best, Samuel Dubinsky and Andrea Edginton, was a collaboration between Waterloo and the University of California San Diego. The study was recently published in the Frontiers in Pediatrics journal.

New Centre for WIL website launches

By Matthew King.

The new Centre for Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) website is now live. The new site brings all of the programs, courses and curriculum development the unit offers together on one easy-to-navigate site. The new Centre for WIL website combines the previous WatPD and EDGE websites, while also highlighting newer programs and initiatives.

“The launch of our new website signals the official rebranding of WIL Programs to the Centre for WIL. Our stakeholders can now find all our offerings in one central location and bring cohesiveness to our online presence,” said Andrea Prier, director, Centre for WIL. “We want our staff to see their work reflected in one central place. It also serves as a better resource to students who are searching for the best work-integrated learning option for them.”

Students can now visit the Centre for WIL website for relevant information about:

• PD courses;
• EDGE milestones and program requirements;
• WE Accelerate stream offerings and timelines; and
• Digital Skills Fundamental micro-courses.

The new website provides a seamless user experience for all stakeholders, including staff.

“A central website provides us with the opportunity to better serve our various audiences and to promote our collaborations with students, faculty members and industry and community partners,” says Prier. “Ultimately it gives us the ability to showcase, in one place, our world-leading WIL curriculum, courses and programs.”