Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lecture 2012
Prof. Gehan Amaratunga will deliver the IESL Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lecture 2012 on Thursday, November 15 at 5.15 p. m. at the IESL Auditorium, 120/15 Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7. The lecture is presented by the Ray Wijewardene Charitable Trust together with the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka. Entrance is free. Prof. Amaratunga, obtained his B.Sc from Cardiff University and Ph.D from Cambridge, both in electrical/electronic engineering. He has held the 1966 Professorship in Engineering at the University of Cambridge since 1998. He currently heads the Electronics, Power and Energy Conversion Group, one of four major research groups within the Electrical Engineering Division of the Cambridge Engineering Faculty.
His group was amongst the first to demonstrate integration of logic level electronics for signal processing and high voltage power transistors in a single IC ( chip). His current research is focussed on integrated power conversion circuits.
Prof. Amaratunga is a co-founder of CamSemi – which is commercialising a new generation of power and mixed- signal ICs for power management with venture capital investment. He is also a founder of Enecsys, a company formed with his research students to develop and market integrated electronics ( microinverters) for grid connection of solar PV systems.
Nanoinstruments, a company he founded with his colleagues to commercialise CNT synthesis equipment was acquired by Aixtron AG in 2007.
He has previously held faculty positions at the Universities of Liverpool ( Chair in Electrical Engineering), Cambridge, and Southampton. He has held the UK Royal Academy of Engineering Overseas Research Award at Stanford University and been a Royal Society visitor at the School of Physics, University of Sydney. He has published over 450 journal and conference papers. Professor Amaratunga was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004. In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal ‘for outstanding personal contributions to British engineering’.