Nihal Kularatna

Nihal Kularatna is a Sri Lankan electronics engineer. He serves as professor at University of Waikato. He has over four and a half decades of contributions to both electronics research. In 2014 he was appointed the Vice Chair of the IEEE DC Energy Efficiency Committee. His research output includes over 160 refereed papers published in esteemed journals and presented at international conferences.

Education He holds a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from the University of Waikato, and a Bachelor of Science in engineering (Honors) from the University of Ceylon.

In addition to his institutional roles, Kularatna served as a consultant for various US companies, including the Gartner Group and Technology Dynamics, NJ. In 2002, he moved to New Zealand, accepting a senior lecturer position at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Auckland. Subsequently, in 2006, he transitioned to the University of Waikato.

His research output includes over 160 refereed papers published in journals and presented at international conferences.

He was awarded with the UoW Postgraduate Research Supervision Excellence Award in 2021.

Currently serving as Professor in Electronics at the University of Waikato, School of Engineering, Kularatna's research interests include supercapacitor applications

Pioneering Supercapacitor Assisted (SCA) Techniques Nihal Kularatna led a research group the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand within the two decades (2005-2025) to develop a new family of supercapacitor applications emerged and known as Supercapacitor Assisted (SCA) techniques. These SCA techniques family includes unique types of DC-DC converters, lightning protection systems, DC circuit breakers and DC powered appliances such as white goods etc. These techniques has culminated several patents , research publications and some commercial products such as Prodigy 8 series.

Supercapacitor assisted low dropout regulator (SCALDO) is the first successful power converter technique under the SCA family. Supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA) is the first supercapacitor based surge protector technique which was commercialized by Thor Technologies, Perth, Australia. Supercapacitor assisted LED (SCALED) technique is a high efficiency DC lighting technique aimed at DC grid based future buildings .With future DC microgrid based DC systems developing, SCA Transient Energy Pump (SCATEP) based DC circuit breaker technique was also recently developed .

SCA techniques are based on a new theoretical concept now published as SCA Loss Management (SCALoM) theory and this new family of power converters and protection systems are aimed at future DC microgrids, DC homes and DC appliances based on renewable energy.

Contribution of books

Nihal has shared his electronic engineering expertise by authoring many reference books for electronic engineers starting in 1996. His first work on electronic test and measuring instruments was published in 1996 by the Institution of Engineering Technology – London, which was formerly known as IEE-London. In 1998, he published a book with Elsevier titled Power Electronics Design Handbook: Low Power Components and Applications. This was followed by another work in 2000 for Elsevier titled Modern Component Families and Circuit Block Design. In 2003, a new edition of his first book was published as Digital and Analogue Instrumentation: Testing and Measurement. It was reprinted in 2008 by IET-London. His fifth work, co-authored, on telecommunications was published in 2004 by Artech House Publishers.

With CRC Press, he contributed two works in 2008 and 2012 respectively: Circuit Design and DC Power Management. From 2014 to 2021, he published three research monographs with Elsevier: on energy storage devices, transient surge protector design, and his latest monograph, Energy Storage Devices for Renewable Energy Systems: Rechargeable Batteries and Supercapacitors. These ten works collectively span over 4,000 printed pages.

Selected publications