Vernon Cooray

Vernon Cooray has made many contribution in lightning research and lightning protection. Some of his notable contributions are the following. He is the first scientist to show that the basic foundation of all engineering return stroke models are the same even though they are expressed in different mathematical formulations. He is also the first scientist to resolve one of the controversies that existed in 1980s between the EMC engineers and Power engineers related to the theories of interaction of lightning electromagnetic fields with power lines by showing that a model developed by Prof. Sune Rusck, and used frequently by power engineers, is identical to the model developed by Agrawal et al., frequently used by EMC engineers. He and his collaborators were the first group of scientists to show that lightning cloud flashes are as efficient as lightning ground flashes in generating nitrogen oxides. He together with Prof. Marcos Rubinstein developed the Cooray-Rubinstein approximation which is frequently used in analysing the voltages induced in power lines by lightning. Vernon Cooray and Marley Becerra developed the lightning interaction simulation program SLIM that can be used to predict the location of lightning strikes to structures. More recently, he together with Dr. Gerald Cooray illustrated a connection between classical electromagnetic fields and time energy uncertainty principle.

After completing his primary and secondary education at De Mazenod College, Kandana, Sri Lanka, he joined the University of Colombo in 1971 and obtained an honours degree in physics with a first class in 1976. In 1978 he enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Uppsala University. His thesis advisor was Professor Stig Lundquist who was a plasma physicist and a student of the noble laureate Hannes Alfvén of Sweden. After his Ph.D., Vernon Cooray was absorbed into the world renowned lightning research group of Uppsala University. Continuing the tradition of lightning research at Uppsala University he has made major contributions in the fields of lightning research, lightning protection and physics of laboratory sparks. In 2000 he was promoted to a full professor at Uppsala University and between 2000 and 2002 he was the head of the division of electricity. In 2014 he was elected as the president of the International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP) for a period of six years. ICLP is considered as the most prestigious conference in the world that addresses the problems related to lightning physics and lightning protection and attended by lightning researchers and engineers from all over the world. At present, he is the professor responsible for the research and Ph.D. studies in the field of atmospheric electrical discharges at Uppsala University. Vernon Cooray has also contributed to educate the general public on lightning and lightning protection through newspapers, radio and television.