Renowned engineer Prof. Manjula Fernando takes over as new PUCSL Chairman

Renowned engineer Prof. Manjula Fernando yesterday assumed office as the new Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) following the approval by the Constitutional Council.

He replaces Janaka Ratnayake who resigned from the post last month after a parliamentary vote against him.

With the latest appointment the PUCSL Commission members comprise Prof. Manjula Fernando (Chairman), Chathurika Wijesinghe, Douglas N. Nanayakkara and Sellampola Gedara Senarathna.

Prof. Fernando received his BSc. Eng. degree with first class honours from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1993 and he was awarded the inaugural Ceylon Electricity Board Gold Medal and Prize for the best performance in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He received his Technical Licentiate degree from Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and the PhD degree from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden in 1997 and 1999 respectively. In May 1993, he started his career as an instructor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Peradeniya and at present he is working as a Senior Professor. During his career, he was a guest researcher at Fachbereich Elektrotechnik, HTWS, Zittau Germany, at Chalmers University of Technology Sweden, at Manchester University UK, and at University of Brescia Italy.

He is a senior member of IEEE from 2010. He was the Founder Chair of IEEE Sri Lanka section Power and Energy Society chapter in 2010 and awarded the IEEE PES Outstanding Engineer Award in 2016, the chair of IEEE Sri Lanka Central Region subsection in 2009 and the General Chair of Fourth IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS2009) in 2009. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer from 2008, and fellow of the Institution of Engineers from 2014.