She was born in Paris, France in a family of Srilankan Tamil origin. After graduating her master degree in Chemical Physics from the University of Paris Saclay, she obtained a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Caen Normandie (2020) were she spent three years of experimental research on the molecular growth of linear hydrocarbon clusters induced by collision with ions and electrons, under the supervision of Dr. Patrick ROUSSEAU, within the CIMAP laboratory in Caen (France).

The work presented in her thesis concerns the experimental study in the gas phase of the collisions between low energy ionizing particles and weakly bonded, neutral clusters of linear hydrocarbons. The purpose of these experiments was to analyze the processes subsequent to the energy and charge transfers during collision, which are the fragmentation and molecular growth via the formation of covalently bonded molecules forming these clusters. The experimental work has shed light on the respective roles of electronic ionization and the nuclear and electronic stopping powers of projectiles on growth mechanisms within the clusters. To this end, the studies were carried out with low energy ion beams (keV) supplied by GANIL (Caen), which represents the majority of the results presented here, and experiments using electrons were also carried out at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Chemistry - Physics (Prague, Czech Republic).

During her thesis, she got the opportunities to participate in several conferences and experiments in Europe. In fact, during the ISACC conference held in Cantebury, England (2019), she got the opportunity to meet in person Pr. Henrik Cederquist from Stockholm University, and told her about a possible post-doctoral fellowship in Stockholm. Following her thesis, Suvasthika got the opportunity to pursue academical research through a post-doctoral fellowship at the Atomic Physic division of the Department of Physics at Stockholm University, Sweden. During this post-doc, started in January 2021, she performs experimental physics with atomic and molecular ions stored in the DESIREE: Double Electrostatic Ion Ring Experiment infrastructure in collaboration with other researchers here at Fysikum.

Each year, the Chemistry-Physics Division, the only division with the dual supervision of the Société Chimique de France and the Société Française de Physique, promotes their discipline through the organization of events such as the DCP Days, the Chemistry-Physics Meetings, International Conferences and the various conferences and days organized by our different subdivisions. The DCP annually honors brilliant and talented scientists through the prizes it awards, the Thesis prize, the Young Researcher and the Confirmed Researcher from all over France in this domain. This year, this honorable Thesis prize has been attributed to Suvasthika Indrajith for her research thesis.

- My goal is to maintain the collaboration between Sweden and France and I'm applying for experimental proposals in order to do so. My vision is to do both teaching and research. I'm very happy that I took this opportunity here at the Physics Department and the people is really nice to work with. It's an open-minded and friendly atmosphere here. It's been more collaboration than competition.
Suvasthika thinks that PostDoc employments are an excellent opportunity to work with researchers around the world for a limited time and have interesting exchange of thoughts and experiments with them.

We wish Suvasthika all the best with her research!

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