Was there any special reason that drove you towards
specialization in electrical and electronic engineering?
Did you have any life-changing experiences that put
you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re
doing today? Tell us about them.
From 1987 till 1989, we had this JVP insurgency. It was
more like a life saving experience rather than life chang-
ing experience. We were supposed to graduate by the
end of 1987, but all the universities were closed few
months before that. Till 1990 we were “wanted people”.
University students were always looked for, by the army as
“wanted people (criminals!)”.
We were trying to find jobs and I worked in a few places
during that time. Then in 1990, we came back to the
faculty. We were the first batch in the university system
to come back and start education. This faculty, including
Akbar Hall, was surrounded by the army. In that period,
when we were brought back by the army to do the exam,
this was more like a camp. Everyone was put in Akbar Hall.
Nobody could go out. If we wanted to go out, we were
thoroughly checked. Coming in and out was governed
by the police and army. The faculty was administered
probably by the SSP Kandy (not by the Dean, Faculty of
Engineering).
I studied till 10 pm and then I slept. One day, somebody
was knocking on my door at Akbar Hall. I was a little furi-
ous about this, but I went to open the door. Then my
friend came and said ‘Janaka, the army is here.’ When I
opened the door and that was the first time I have seen so
many different kinds of weapons. Everybody was aiming
towards my room. They have misunderstood my routine
as something suspicious since our room was the only
room in the dark while the exams were getting closer. I
(my roommate was out as his wife delivered a baby) had
to do a lot of explanation to stay out of trouble. That was
one of my memorable experience here.
Coming back to your original question, right from the
beginning, my interest was on electrical power; that was
my chosen path. I did a project on induction generator
(which is now converted to a lab experiment). Projects
were not compulsory those days. If you wanted to do a
project, you must go and talk to a supervisor and say that
you want to do a project. In the same way, I went and did
a project with Prof. Jayasekara and I was the only person
who did a project with him. Even though I didn’t realize
the importance of the project I chose, my selection led
me to get this job and do a lot of my early career research
work. The main application of the induction generators
was wind power generation and that is where I am recog-
nized as an expert.
After graduation, did you directly go for higher stud-
ies? If not, what was your first move after graduation?
At that time, this department had only three members.
Two Professors and one instructor - that’s all, no staff.
Most of us were recruited initially as instructors, and then
we were elevated to assistant lecturers. Five of us were
promoted to assistant lecturers. I was here till 1992 and
I was the instructor in-charge of first years’.Then, I was
teaching many subjects as an assistant lecturer. I was
very closely observed by Prof. Jayasekara before I was
assigned for lecturing. I had to show him the lecture
notes before I went to teach them. I am glad that I was
trained by the most senior Professor of the department.
Then in 1992, I went to the United Kingdom to read for
my PhD.
Tell us something about the research you did during
the PhD. Where did you do your PhD? Who were your
supervisors? What was it based on? Why were you
interested in that particular field?
When I joined the department, my colleagues were
going for higher studies. I never bothered anyway. But
luckily, I got a commonwealth scholarship which was
very prestigious those days and I went to the University
of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology at
Manchester UK, to do my higher studies in September
1992. I wanted to do a PhD on protection - the area I
was most fascinated about. I was received by a great pro-
fessor who was the previous Dean, Prof. Collin Cooper
and he said: “I saw your application and I grabbed you”.
Then Prof. Cooper asked me what I wanted to do. I told
him that I’m very much interested in doing something
on protection. And then he slowly persuaded me to do
something else, something completely different from
what I wanted to do. When I started my PhD with Prof.
Colin Cooper, he was about to retire. When Prof. Cooper
retired at the end of my second year, Dr. Nick Jenkins
became my supervisor.
I ended up working on static VAR compensators, which is
a reactive power compensator using IGBT (Insulated Gate
Bipolar Transistor) based converters. I built a massive
circuit based on IGBTs; that was the very early stages of
IGBTs. I was working in the lab most of the time building
this circuit.
Anything special you want to mention about your
PhD experience?
My PhD exam was four hours long and my examiner
was a very old professor from Nottingham University.
He interviewed me for more than three and a half hours.
Then he asked me one question and he said: “If you don’t
give an answer to this question I won’t give you the
PhD”. His question was very different to what I antici-
pated. It really had nothing to do with my PhD. I thought
about it a few minutes. Then it just occurred to me that
he is referring exactly to what is happening in a tube
light. That was when I realized that the same thing has
been happening inside the circuit I built as well. I gave
him the answer and here I am with my PhD. However,
you don’t expect such a simple - fundamental question
at the end of your PhD. I wanted to share this because
people think PhD questions are very serious but they can
be very simple and fundamental.
I obtained my PhD in October 1995 and I returned to
Peradeniya in December.
While doing my PhD, I had chances to present some of
my work in various forums. Twice in America; once I went
Gauge Magazine University of Peradeniya 21