Selvadurai Mahalingam (16 January 1926 – 3 November 2015) was a

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

mechanical engineer and academic.

Early life and family

Mahalingam was born on 16 January 1926 in

Alaveddy Alaveddy (; ) is an area of South-West Valigamam (Valikamam) Division, Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. It consists of five village tracts: Alaveddy North, Alaveddy Centre, Alaveddy East, Alaveddy South and Alaveddy West. Nearby villages are Uduvil, C ...

in northern

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was the son of Selvadurai and Nagamma Sellasaraswathy. When he was young his family moved to

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

. He was educated at

Maxwell School Maxwell School () is an single-sex school, all-boys secondary school, located north of Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1916, the school is believed to be the oldest school in north of Kuala Lumpur as well as one of the oldest in Kuala Lumpur and ...

and Victoria College in Malaya. He returned to Ceylon aged 20 and joined

Ceylon Technical College Maradana College of Technology is the oldest technical college in Sri Lanka. Formally known as the Ceylon Technical College which was an institution of higher education for Technical and Scientific fields in Ceylon and a government department. It ...

in 1946, graduating with a first class B.Sc.Eng. degree. He received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree from the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

in 1956. Mahalingam married Devaki.

Career

Mahalingam joined the Engineering Faculty of the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univ ...

(later University of Ceylon, Peradeniya,

University of Peradeniya The University of Peradeniya (, ) is a Public research university, public university in Sri Lanka, funded by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka, University Grants Commission. It is the largest university in Sri Lanka, which was origin ...

) when it was established in 1950. In 1958 he wrote highly acclaimed research paper on

vibration Vibration () is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. Vibration may be deterministic if the oscillations can be characterised precisely (e.g. the periodic motion of a pendulum), or random if the os ...

, ''Vibration of Branched System: A Displacement Excitation Approach'', which was published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics. Mahalingam received a D.Sc.Eng. degree from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

after which he was promoted to professor. After retirement in 1991 he served as an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the University of Peradeniya. Mahalingam received the

Vidya Jyothi The Vidya Jyothi (; ) is a Sri Lankan Sri Lankan honours system, national honour awarded "''for outstanding scientific and technological achievements''". It is the highest national honour for science in Sri Lanka for outstanding contribution to the ...

honour Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself ...

in 2005. He died on 3 November 2015 at the private North Central Hospital in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahalingam, S. 1926 births 2015 deaths Academic staff of the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) Academic staff of the University of Peradeniya Academic staff of the University of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya) Alumni of Ceylon Technical College Alumni of the University of Sheffield People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan academics Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan mechanical engineers Vidya Jyothi