Professorial Lecture by Professor Nihal Kularatna

'From a Home Lab to Institutional Partnerships and Service to the Global Electronics Community: A 50-Year Journey' by Professor Nihal Kularatna

From tinkering with electronics in a home lab in Sri Lanka to influencing global innovations in renewable energy systems, Professor Nihal Kularatna's 50-year journey is one of perseverance, ingenuity, and impact. As a young engineer in the 1970s, he taught himself circuit design by building power supplies in his spare time—work that would go on to be published internationally and spark a lifetime of innovation in electronic engineering.

Over the decades, Professor Kularatna’s career has spanned continents and sectors, from aviation and telecommunications to cutting-edge research and development. He led the Arthur C. Clarke Institute in Sri Lanka, where he fostered industry partnerships and professional development programmes, and later brought his pioneering vision to New Zealand. At the University of Waikato, his development of Supercapacitor Assisted (SCA) techniques has opened new possibilities in energy efficiency and earned him national recognition for engineering innovation.

In this professorial lecture, Professor Kularatna will reflect on the ideas, challenges, and breakthroughs that have defined his remarkable career. Whether you're an engineer, a student, or simply curious about how one person’s passion can ripple across industries and borders, this lecture offers an inspiring glimpse into the power of persistence, creativity, and knowledge-sharing in shaping the technologies of tomorrow.

This 45-minute public lecture will be held at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, starting at 5.45pm. Ticket scanning and Opus Bar will be open from 5pm.

Free parking is available on campus via Gate 2B, Knighton Road, Hamilton from 4.30pm.

Please register your attendance by clicking on the 'select tickets' button above and bring your eticket, with you on the evening to be scanned.

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Professor Nihal Kularatna is passionate about creativity in electronic circuit design. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree in 1976 from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He was a practicing engineer for 25 years working in the areas of aviation ground electronics, digital telephony, industrial systems and power electronics.

From 1985 he was employed by the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies and was promoted to the CEO of the institute in 1999.

In 2002 he moved to New Zealand and was a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland before relocating to the University of Waikato in 2006. In 2015 he received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Waikato and has recently become a Professor in Electronics.

Nihal has authored 10 books, published by leading international publishers such as IET-London, Elsevier-USA and CRC Press-USA. He won the New Zealand Engineering Innovator of the Year (2013) award for developing supercapacitor assisted (SCA) techniques. He has also published more than 190 scholarly papers and supervised over two dozen PhD and masters students. In 2021, the University of Waikato awarded him with the 'Postgraduate Research Supervision Staff Excellence Award'.

Professor Nihal Kularatna has several US, PCT and other granted patents for his SCA and other power electronic techniques. He frequently is invited to deliver tutorials and workshops at IEEE and industry conferences. His latest book published in 2021 by Elsevier is titled, 'Energy Storage Systems for Renewable Energy Based Systems: Rechargeable Batteries and Supercapacitors'. Nihal and his team are confident that supercapacitors will change the roadmap of power converters and protection systems for future green energy systems.