Researcher biography

Prof. Mithulan has a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His B.Sc. (Eng.) and M. Eng. degrees are from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand, in May 1993 and August 1997, respectively. Prior to joining the University of Queensland from 2009, Mithulan was at the Energy Field of Study, AIT. His previous professional positions include Planning Engineer at Generation Planning division at Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sri Lanka and Project Leader, at the Centre of Excellence in Electric Power Technology (CEEPT) at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

His main research interest is on Grid Integration of Renewable Energy (GIRE). In this research topic, he has been leading the research in two themes: Planning and Operational Planning of grid integration of renewable energy. His research has been used by industries and received high citations. Based on his research, he published over 320 articles, including one book, eight book chapters, technical reports, refereed journal and conference papers.

He had supervised 29 Ph.D. students (UQ, CQU, UNSW, UNITEN and AIT), 50 research Masters (at AIT) and over 170 thesis project students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to successful completion. He had been involved in over 30 projects (research, teaching and learning) with a total budget of over 3.6 million AU$, as a principal or co-principal investigator. His recent grants are from Australian Research Council (ARC), Government of India, Indonesia and Malaysisa and Sterling Wilson Company. Previous projects were funded by European Union (EU) and other international donor agencies such as Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), NORAD, ARC, CSIRO and Australian Power Institute (API). His research network includes most of the member nations in ASEAN, other Asian countries such as India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and a number of European countries (France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands). He also served as the Coordinator of Energy Field of Study and Director of Regional Energy Resource Information Centre (RERIC), at AIT, from September 2005 to December 2007.

He has been the Director of Higher Degree Research (HDR) studies and Post Graduate Coordinator at the school of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, since July 2019, looking after the welfare of over 275 higher degree research scholars.

He was invited to join the editorial board of the American Institute of Mathematical Sciences Electronic Engineering Journal - an international open access journal. He is a senior member of IEEE.