PROFESSOR J. B. EKANAYAKE
Former Head of the Department, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
BSc, PhD, FIEEE, FIET, FIESL, CEng (SL and UK)
Prof. J.B. Ekanayake, the former Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya was recently recognized as
an IEEE fellow member. He is the second IEEE fellow member in Sri Lanka. Following is an
interview conducted about his life so far.
Sir, we’d be happy to start with a self- introduction.
Tell us something about your family and childhood.
Well, I was born in 1964 – October as the second in
a family of four. My parents were both teachers (not
teachers in government schools). They had their own
school – a government approved private school. My
elder sister is a medical consultant, working in the UK. I
also have a younger brother and a sister, who are twins
and both of them are Associate Professors in US univer-
sities. I’m the only person in Sri Lanka (smiles).
My childhood memories are not that great. I was prob-
ably in the hospital more than in schools. So I was gen-
erally the last in the class, not because that I couldn’t
do any work or anything, but because I was not going
to school that much. However, my life started changing
when I joined a school in Colombo. I attended St. John’s
College, Nugegoda from grade 4 to 6. That time, I don’t
know what happened. May be the climate, or something
else changed my health. Then, I started picking up my
academic career.
Where did you go to school?
I started schooling at Matale. I went to Matale con-
vent - which is a girls’ school, but those days you could
go to a girl’s school for the kindergarten levels. Then
I attended Christchurch College, Matale. From there,
I went to Nugegoda to attend St. John’s College and
then came back to Matale again in grade 6. Then, I was
at St. Thomas College, Matale till A/Ls’. I started A/Ls’
there, but then my sister - who was studying at Science
College, Matale (that was where many of my cousins
studied) wanted me to study there. So I applied to
Matale Science College, but then they refused, because
I failed the grade 5 scholarship exam. The basis for
admitting students to the school was the grade 5 exams
and they said no for my admission. So I was doing my
A/Ls’ at St. Thomas’ for 5 or 6 months. However, one
of my cousins - who was a teacher at Science College,
managed to get me there. Then I got a merit pass and
came here.
Why did you want to become an Engineer?
From my childhood, I was breaking and making things.
That was my habit. I could remember when I was in
grade 7, I built my first radio. I got parts from a
place called “Capital Radio”, then I assembled all
of that and tuned it. That’s a lifetime achieve-
ment for a grade 7 kid. Once I removed the
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University of Peradeniya Gauge Magazine
scraper of the coconut scraper and put a transformer
core and winding transformers and all kind of things
(laughs) and also I was very good at repairing type-
writers, roneo machines, etc.. Therefore, engineering
was a part of my life from childhood.
When did you enrol in the Faculty as an under-
graduate? Tell us something about your life in the
faculty as an undergraduate.
I joined the faculty in 1983 (Prof. Thurairajah was the
dean at that time), and in the 1st year, in fact, I failed
Engineering Drawing. Those days you had to work
really hard to pass drawing. It was much harder than
today, but I managed to get a pass on the second
attempt (repeat).
It was not a semester system those days, but it was
the year system. At the end of the first year, you could
select what you wanted to do. Even with a repeat
subject, I was selected to the Electrical Engineering
stream. That was my only choice as I was passionate
to do things related to electri-
c a l
engineering. Those days,
nobody wanted to do
electrical engineer-
ing because of Prof.
Gunawardhana
(laughs). I obtained
1st classes in part
1, part 2 and part
3 examinations.
That was my
career here.