Rate My Professor Rahula Attalage

Professor Rahula Attalage is a distinguished academic in mechanical engineering with extensive expertise in energy engineering. He earned his PhD in Energy Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, France in 1992, a Degree of Profound Studies (D.E.A.) in Energy Engineering from the same institution in 1988, a Master of Engineering in Energy Technology from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 1986, and a Bachelor of Science of Engineering (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 1982. His professional career began as a Rotating Equipment Engineer at the State Fertilizer Manufacturing Corporation of Sri Lanka. In 1993, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa as Senior Lecturer Grade II, progressing to Professor in 2003 and Senior Professor in 2011. He served as Head of the Department from 2002 to 2005, Director of the Postgraduate Studies Division, Faculty of Engineering from 2008 to 2012, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 2012 to 2017. Currently, he holds the positions of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT). Additional roles include Commissioner at the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2019, Chairman of the National Institute of Fisheries & Nautical Engineering from 2004 to 2005, and Director on the Board of Sri Lanka Transport Board in 2006. He has been a Visiting Professor at Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan from 2006 to 2008, and Visiting Faculty at the Energy Program of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand from 1998 to 1999.

Professor Attalage's research specializations include thermodynamics, heat transfer, solar thermal, energy efficiency, building energy, and green buildings. He has supervised numerous PhD, MPhil, and MSc/MEng students and acted as lead consultant for LEED Certification projects, such as the Platinum-rated MAS Holdings Thurulie project that received the Holcim Foundation global award in 2009, and the LOTUS Tower project. His contributions extend to developing Energy Efficiency Building Codes, standards for CFLs and household refrigerators, and the Regional Center for Lighting under the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority. He received DAAD Scholarship in 1985 and French Government Scholarship in 1986, Outstanding Research Awards from the University of Moratuwa in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, Presidential Awards for Scientific Publications in 2014, 2015, and 2017, and the Honorary Distinction of Order of the Academic Palms from the Government of France in 2018. Key publications include A multi criterion analysis for renewable energy integration process of a standalone hybrid energy system with internal combustion generator (Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 2015), A model for analyzing the thermal performance of roof configurations with flat inclined surfaces (Energy and Buildings, 2016), Comparative assessment on the extraction of carotenoids from microalgal sources (Food Chemistry, 2019), and Development of an artificial neural network model to simulate the growth of microalga Chlorella vulgaris (Journal of Biotechnology, 2020). His scholarly work has amassed 1,619 citations across 94 publications.