Dr. Thilina U. Jayawardena is a scientist/postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta in Canada. He earned his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Colombo and his MSc and PhD in Marine Natural Sciences from Jeju National University in South Korea, focusing on medicinal and natural product chemistry. Dr. Jayawardena's research interests include natural product chemistry, with a focus on specialized metabolites. He co-led several book publications, including Elsevier’s forthcoming Marine Specialized (secondary) Metabolites and Their Diverse Applications.