Dr. Sarath Witanachchi received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from SUNY at Buffalo and has been a faculty member at USF for 33 years. He has been the Chair of the Physics department for the last 4 years. His research accomplishments at USF include being the PI or Co-PI of Federal grants of over $7M, recipient of 4 US patents, and authoring over 90 peer-reviewed publications. As the Director of an NSF REU program in Applied Physics at USF for 7 years, he has provided UG research experience to over 100 students. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship. He directed several study abroad programs for USF students and has engaged multiple USF students in an international research programs to generate renewable energy for rural villages in Africa.