the-BA : Shini Somarathne biography

Born to a Malaysian mother and Sri Lankan father in London, Shini has led a pretty unusual life – certainly one which has been full of contradictions. Holding heated discussions with academics about mathematical turbulence theories one minute, then backstage sipping champagne whilst waiting for her turn on a catwalk, the next. Pirouetting en Pointe in the evening, following a morning of inspecting rooftop air-conditioning units of an office tower wearing a hard hat and steel top-capped boots. These were just a few of her life experiences - the linkage between them being her curiosity, eagerness and fascination by the beauty of science and the technicalities of self-expression.

Shini started a degree in mechanical engineering with the long term plan of taking over her Dad’s engineering consultancy. She embarked upon a 3-year BEng(Hons) at Brunel University, during which she genuinely became fascinated with fluid dynamics. How wonderful that engineers could actually use a bunch of mathematical equations (pioneered by Bernoulli) to visualise the invisible. They could actually see on a computer screen how fluids (gases and liquids) behaved in a whole host of situations. From air streaming over Formula 1 cars and airplane wings to water gushing past the hull of ships or inside drinking water pipes!

After her BEng(Hons), she immediately continued to delve deeper into her fascination and researched into how air behaved within buildings – perhaps not the sexiest application of CFD, but nevertheless, crucial for reducing sick building syndrome and other similar enclosed environmental problems. It took her four and a half years to complete her engineering doctorate thesis, entitled ‘Dynamic Thermal Modelling using Computational Fluid Dynamics’.

Following her PhD, during a four year sponsorship with a CFD software house, Shini discovered her passion - a passion for communicating science. After completing a compulsory course at university called ‘Talking to the Media’, whereby doctorate students were trained to explain their subjects to the public through TV and radio, she recognised that the most effective industry in which to pursue her passion was the media. Since the summer of 2005, she has been working towards increasing public interest in science and engineering - working both part-time within industry and also delivering a variety of lectures. In addition, Shini is currently researching and developing her own factual entertainment TV ideas.

In October 2006 Shini was a panellist at Randomness and Certainty at the Dana Centre.

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