Adamberage Ruklanthi "Rukie" de Alwis, currently a fourth year graduate student, received her B.S. from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 2008 where she did her undergraduate research on the effects of chemical & environmental factors on penta-peptides chemical shift values using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. After pondering the mysteries of the cosmos for the summer she entered UNC-Chapel Hill's BBSP Ph.D. program where she joined the de Silva lab. At present, she investigates the complex neutralization and enhancement properties of human dengue-immune sera.

Rukie spends her free time growing up liters of infected cell cultures to make dengue antigen.