Vernon Cooray
{{Short description|Sri Lankan scientist}}
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| name = Vernon Cooray
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| nationality = Sri Lankan Swedish
| known_for = Lightning Research
High Voltage Engineering
Discharge Physics
| education = De Mazenod College
| employer = Uppsala University
| occupation = Professor of Electrical Engineering
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| spouse = Ruby Cooray
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| children = 2
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Vernon Cooray is a Sri Lankan scientist who is an emeritus professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Uppsala University, Sweden. As a scientist he has concentrated on solving both physics and engineering problems related to lightning physics, lightning protection and physics of electrical discharges. This research work has resulted in more than 600 research publications.{{Cite web |title=vernon cooray |url=https://scholar.google.se/citations?user=8RN1FqQAAAAJ&hl=sv |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=scholar.google.se}} He was the Ph.D. thesis supervisor of more than thirty researchers, both at Uppsala and foreign universities, who are now actively engaged in lightning research and lightning protection in different parts of the world.{{cite web|url=http://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=XX2566|title=Vernon Cooray - Uppsala University, Sweden|website=katalog.uu.se}}{{cite book|url=https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789401789370#aboutAuthors|title=About the Authors - An Introduction to Lightning|isbn=9789401789370|publisher=Springer|year=2015}}{{cite web|url=http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/person.jsf?dswid=5967&pid=authority-person%3A11324|title=Cooray, Vernon|website=Uppsala University Publications}}{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vernon_Cooray-UU|title=Vernon Cooray - Uppsala University, Uppsala - UU - ResearchGate|website=ResearchGate}}
Early life and career
In 2014 he was elected as the president of the International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP) for a period of six years.{{cite web|url=http://www.iclp-centre.org/committees.php|title=ICLP Centre - Committees|website=www.iclp-centre.org}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.iclp-centre.org/about.php|title=ICLP Centre - about|website=www.iclp-centre.org}} From 2000 to 2017, he was 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.{{cite news |title=Blixtmaster Vernon Cooray upplyser Institutet |url=http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=4131&artikel=5456350|language=sv |access-date=2018-02-04 }}{{cite news |title=Högsäsong för blixt och dunder |url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/uppsala/hogsasong-for-blixt-och-dunder|language=sv |access-date=2018-02-04 }}{{cite news |title=Många myter om blixt och dunder |url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/myterna-om-skydd-mot-blixten|language=sv |access-date=2018-02-04 }}{{cite news |title=Trots att risken är liten – Sex av tio svenskar är åskrädda |url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/trots-att-risken-ar-liten-sex-av-tio-svenskar-ar-askradda|language=sv |access-date=2018-02-04 }} Vernon Cooray has edited three books{{cite web|url=https://www.theiet.org/resources/books/pow-en/lgse.cfm?|title=The Lightning Flash, 2nd Edition - The IET|website=www.theiet.org}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theiet.org/resources/books/pow-en/lightning-protection.cfm?|title=Lightning Protection - The IET|website=www.theiet.org}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theiet.org/resources/books/pow-en/lighting-electromagnetics.cfm?origin=books-lighting|title=Lightning Electromagnetics - The IET|website=www.theiet.org}} and authored two books{{cite book|url=https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789401789370|title=An Introduction to Lightning - Vernon Cooray - Springer|isbn=9789401789370|publisher=Springer|year=2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hvi.uu.se/blixtbok/blixten.html|title=Blixt och åska. Så fungerar naturens fyrverkeri|website=www.hvi.uu.se}} on lightning physics and lightning protection.
Research
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.{{cite journal|title=On the concepts used in return stroke models applied in engineering practice|first=Vernon|last=Cooray|journal=IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility|volume=45|issue=1|pages=101–108|doi=10.1109/TEMC.2002.808041|year=2003}}{{cite journal|title=A Novel Procedure to Represent Lightning Return Strokes Current Dissipation Return Stroke Models|first=Vernon|last=Cooray|journal=IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility|volume=51|issue=3|pages=748–755|doi=10.1109/TEMC.2009.2019764|year=2009|s2cid=11545695}} 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.{{cite journal|title=Calculating lightning-induced overvoltages in power lines. A comparison of two coupling models|first=Vernon|last=Cooray|journal=IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility|volume=36|issue=3|pages=179–182|doi=10.1109/15.305462|year=1994}} 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.{{cite journal|title=On the NOx production by laboratory electrical discharges and lightning|first1=Vernon|last1=Cooray|first2=Mahbubur|last2=Rahman|first3=Vladimir|last3=Rakov|journal=Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics|volume=71|issue=17–18|pages=1877–1889|doi=10.1016/j.jastp.2009.07.009|year=2009|bibcode=2009JASTP..71.1877C}} 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.{{cite journal|title=Some considerations on the "Cooray-Rubinstein" formulation used in deriving the horizontal electric field of lightning return strokes over finitely conducting ground|first=Vernon|last=Cooray|journal=IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility|volume=44|issue=4|pages=560–566|doi=10.1109/TEMC.2002.804774|year=2002}} 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.{{cite journal|title=A self-consistent upward leader propagation model|first1=Marley|last1=Becerra|first2=Vernon|last2=Cooray|journal=Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics|volume=39|issue=16|pages = 3708–3715|doi=10.1088/0022-3727/39/16/028|year = 2006|url = http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-72516|bibcode=2006JPhD...39.3708B}} He together with Dr. Gerald Cooray illustrated a connection between classical electromagnetic fields and time energy uncertainty principle.{{cite journal|title=On the Action of the Radiation Field Generated by a Traveling-Wave Element and Its Connection to the Time Energy Uncertainty Principle, Elementary Charge and the Fine Structure Constant|first1=Vernon|last1=Cooray|first2=Gerald|last2=Cooray|publisher=MDPI|journal=Atmosphere|volume=8|issue=3|pages=46|doi=10.3390/atmos8030046|year=2017|url=http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1092303/FULLTEXT01|bibcode=2017Atmos...8...46C|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|title=On the Momentum Transported by the Radiation Field of a Long Transient Dipole and Time Energy Uncertainty Principle|first1=Vernon|last1=Cooray|first2=Gerald|last2=Cooray|publisher=MDPI|journal=Atmosphere|volume=7|issue=11|pages=151|doi=10.3390/atmos7110151|year=2016|bibcode=2016Atmos...7..151C|doi-access=free}}
Awards
He has been awarded the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) honorary degree from University of Colombo in Sri Lanka,{{cite web|url=http://www.uu.se/en/research/grants-awards/article/?id=5632&typ=artikel|title=Lightning researcher awarded Honorary Doctorate in Sri Lanka - Uppsala University, Sweden|website=www.uu.se}} the IEEE fellow membership,{{cite journal|title=EMC personality profile|first=F.|last=Sabath|journal= IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Magazine|volume=6|issue=2|pages=38–40|doi=10.1109/MEMC.0.7989989|year=2017}} the Karl Berger award from the international scientific committee of ICLP,{{cite web|url=http://www.uu.se/en/news-media/news/article/?id=1964&typ=artikel|title=Vernon Cooray wins 2012 Karl Berger Award - Uppsala University, Sweden|website=www.uu.se}} and the best book award from the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI).{{cite web|url=http://www.aslionline.org/wp/2015-asli-choice-awards-winners/|title=2015 ASLI Choice Awards Winners|date=21 January 2016}}