Dr Dona Gunawardana – Congratulations

Congratulations to Dr Dona Gunawardana for successfully defended her thesis in her PhD oral examination this morning.

Dona’s final preparation was interrupted by last night’s announcement that Auckland will be moving back to Alert Level 3 by midday today, and her oral examination was changed from a “hybrid face-to-face + Zoom” format to the “online Zoom” format. Nonetheless, Dona performed well in her oral examination. Dona answered the questions well and I think the examiners were impressed by her effort integrating results from the different biophysical tools to study the structure of the ethylene-forming enzyme. Well done Dona and your PhD was well deserved! Due to the Alert Level 3 lockdown, we were unable to celebrate with you today, but we hope that we will be able to give you a farewell celebrations before you depart to the UK for your next adventure. Many congratulations!

Finally, I would like to thank Associate Professor Chris Squire for being the co-supervisor of Dona. I would also like to thank the examiners, HoD nominee, independent chair and staff at the School of Graduate Studies for their help with the examination.