S. Mahalingam (engineer)

Mahalingam was born on 16 January 1926 in Alaveddy in northern Ceylon.[1] He was the son of Selvadurai and Nagamma Sellasaraswathy.[2] When he was young his family moved to Malaya.[1] He was educated at Maxwell School and Victoria College in Malaya.[1] He returned to Ceylon aged 20 and joined Ceylon Technical College in 1946, graduating with a first class B.Sc.Eng. degree.[1][3] He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sheffield in 1956.[1]

Mahalingam married Devaki.[1][4]

Mahalingam joined the Engineering Faculty of the University of Ceylon (later University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, University of Peradeniya) when it was established in 1950.[1][3][5] In 1958 he wrote highly acclaimed research paper on vibration, Vibration of Branched System: A Displacement Excitation Approach, which was published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics.[1][5] Mahalingam received a D.Sc.Eng. degree from the University of London after which he was promoted to professor.[1][5][6] After retirement in 1991 he served as an emeritus professor at the University of Peradeniya.[6][7]

Mahalingam received the Vidya Jyothi honour in 2005.[8] He died on 3 November 2015 at the private North Central Hospital in Jaffna.[1][5]