Nihal Kularatna named New Zealand Innovator of the Year
Thursday, 16 January 2014 00:00
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Electrical Engineering Senior Lecturer Nihal Kularatna was named New Zealand Innovator of the Year at the New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards at a gala dinner at Te Papa recently.
The award recognises Nihal’s work in the field of electronic engineering during his career which spans 35 years. He is presently employed as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering, the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
He is currently active in research in supercapacitor applications, power supply topologies, transient propagation and power conditioning area in power electronics. He is also following the developments in smart sensor systems. He has contributed over 70 papers to journals and international conference proceedings. Recently a US patent was granted (2011) for his work on supercapacitor based efficiency improvements for linear power supplies.
Prior to migrating to New Zealand in 2002, Nihal was the CEO of the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies (ACCIMT) in Sri Lanka.
Nihal Kularatna is an electronics engineer with over 35 years of experience in professional and research environments. He is the author of two Electrical Measurement Series books for the IEE (London) titled “Modern electronic test & measuring instruments” (1996) and “Digital and analogue instrumentation- testing and measurement” (2003/2008) and the two Butterworth (USA) titles “Power electronics design handbook-low power components and applications” (1998, EDN Series for Design Engineers) and the “Modern component families and circuit block design” (2000). He co-authored the book “Essentials of modern telecommunications systems” for Artech House Publishers in USA (April 2004). His two recent works “Electronic circuit design-from concept to implementation” (2008) and “DC power supplies, power management and surge protection for power electronic systems” (2012) were published by CRC Press, Fl, USA.
From 1976 to 1985 he worked as an electronics engineer responsible for navigational aids and communications projects in civil aviation and digital telephone exchange systems. In 1985 he joined the ACCIMT as a research and development engineer and reached the principal research engineer status in 1990, and was appointed the CEO in 2000. From 2002 to 2005 he was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland.
He has undergone many specialised training with equipment manufacturers, universities and other organisations in USA, UK, France, and Italy. He was an active consultant for a few US companies, including the Gartners Group and many Sri Lankan organisations. He was the principal author of McGraw Hill (Datapro) report “Sri Lanka Telecoms-An Industry and market Analysis” (1997). He is currently a member of the expert reviewer panel of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, New Zealand.
A Fellow of the IEE (London), a Senior Member of IEEE (USA) and an honours graduate from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, during his research career in Sri Lanka, he was a winner of Presidential Awards for Inventions (1995), The Most Outstanding Citizens Awards-1999 (Lions Club) and a TOYP Award for academic accomplishment (Jaycees) in 1993. Recently he was selected as a member of the Power Sources Manufacturers Association, USA.
His hobby is gardening cacti and succulents.
