Environments fascinate Sri Lanka-born Lihini Aluwihare, 36, an assistant professor of marine chemistry at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. As a scientific investigator, Aluwihare, who earned her doctorate in chemical oceanography from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, seeks to identify challenging and globally significant problems and then design scientific means to better understand and solve them.

Her specific focus is the chemical, biological and physical processes controlling the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the ocean — elements that can play important roles in mediating the global climate on short- as well as long-term basis. She anticipates that understanding of these modern-day biogeochemical processes will lead to better predictions of how the planet will respond to both natural and man-made climate change in the future.

Aluwihare’s determination to change environments extends to young women and underprivileged students. She is introducing them to science via a National Science Foundation grant she received to enable Scripps to create two annual high school summer internships. Her first student intern recently graduated from UCSD and is pursuing graduate study in earth science. Aluwihare’s professional achievements as well as compassion earned her a UCSD 2007 Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award.