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Vernon Cooray is a Sri Lankan born scientist. He came to Sweden in 1978 for higher studies and obtained a Ph.D. from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1982. At present he is a professor at the Department of Engineering Science at Uppsala University. 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 350 research publications. 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.

Early Life and Career
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 full professor at Uppsala University and between 2000 and 2002 he was the head of the division of electricity. At present, he is the professor responsible for the research and Ph.D. studies in the field of atmospheric electrical discharges at Uppsala University.

Awards
He has been awarded the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) honorary degree from University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, the IEEE fellow membership , the Karl Berger award from the International scientific committee of ICLP , and the best book award from the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI).

Publications
In addition to numerous scientific publications, he has edited three books  and authored two books  on lightning physics and lightning protection.