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2010 - Gerald T. Heydt
As a pioneer of power quality analysis techniques for electric power systems, Gerald T. Heydt’s concepts have ensured reliable and efficient power for best use by industry. Dr. Heydt’s work focused on the development of a “harmonic power flow” algorithm in 1981, which rigorously modeled the interaction of harmonic sources with the power network. Later commercialized by the Electric Power Research Institute as part of its “HARMFLO” software package, it is still used today for analyzing problematic operating conditions in distribution and subtransmission systems related to nonlinear loads. Dr. Heydt also developed a solid analytical basis for the “CBEMA” power curve for addressing three-phase unbalanced situations and cases where large rotating machinery is affected by voltage sags. The method is used by many U.S. electric utility companies today.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Heydt is a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University, Tempe, where he also is the site director of the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSerc) and also the Future Renewable Electric Energy Distribution Management (FREEDM) center.
2009 - Ronald G. Harley
Ronald Gordon Harley is among the top researchers in the areas of electric machines, drives and power electronics. His innovations include micro machines, power electronics and intelligence systems, such as applying neural networks for improved monitoring and control.
Dr. Harley’s early work and books about synchronous machines taught engineers how to analyze and diagnose stability issues in power systems applications, and his more recent contributions have provided innovative intelligent methods for monitoring the health of induction motors. He developed a micromachines research lab in South Africa, which was instrumental in modeling the behavior of generators and induction motors for the benefit of the South African power grid. His group in South Africa was the first to propose and implement a neural-network-based adaptive controller for the current and speed loops of an induction motor.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Harley is currently a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.
2008 - Hirofumi Akagi
Hirofumi Akagi, professor and vice dean of the school of engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a leading researcher in power conversion systems and their application to industry, utility and transportation. He has pioneered the theory of instantaneous reactive power in three-phase circuits, referred to as the “p-q theory,” which has been applied to power conversion systems and active filters for power conditioning. In addition, Dr. Akagi invented hybrid active-passive filters, the system concept and operating principle of which have been applied to the hybrid active-passive filter used in the Yamanashi test line for Japan’s super high-speed, magnetically levitated train system. An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Akagi holds nine patents – with five more pending, and has authored or co-authored more than 70 IEEE Transactions/Journals. Dr. Akagi has received four IEEE Transactions Prize Paper Awards, the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award and the IEEE Industry Applications Society Outstanding Achievement Award.
2007 - Md. Azizur Rahman
Md Azizur Rahman has been a pioneer in the study of interior permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous motors, driving advancements that lay the foundation for sustained development of these motors. Widely known as “Mr. IPM,” Dr. Rahman’s earliest contributions concentrated on the novel design of rotor squirrel-cage and rare-earth permanent magnets beneath the rotor cage winding. Later, he built the world’s first 45kW interior permanent magnet motors, which are now widely used for energy-efficient air conditioners.
More recently, Toyota adopted his design of the IPM motor drive in its Prius hybrid electric car. A research professor in the faculty of engineering and applied science at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada, Dr. Rahman is currently leading research on high-performance IPM motor drive systems.
Dr. Rahman is an IEEE Life Fellow; a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, U.K.; a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada; and a Life Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh.
2006 - George Younkin
For nearly 50 years, Mr. George W. Younkin has been an industry leader in designing and producing machine tool systems.
He is best-known for the design of the Giddings and Lewis Numeripoint system, the first commercial numerical control (NC) system for the machine tool industry, for which he holds the patent. During his long career, he has designed and produced many machine tool systems incorporating NC controllers and spindle and feed servo drives. He was among the first to apply timing belts to servo drive gearing applications, allowing for more economical ratios with less backlash– an important aspect of manufacturing countless products in common, everyday use .
Mr. Younkin has consistently been ahead of the curve in introducing NC systems technology in manufacturing. He was the first to create a battery of tests for high-performance brushless drives and one of the first to place digital servos on a production machine when the industry transitioned from analog to digital technology. As a senior research engineer at Giddings and Lewis Machine Tool Company in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, he was regarded as a source of inspiration for industry designers, providing innumerable solutions to take machine tool system performance to higher levels.
He has long been a technical and administrative leader in the IEEE, particularly in its Industry Applications Society (IAS). He was president of IAS and co-founded the IAS Industrial Drives Committee, chaired the IAS Machine Tools Committee and is a two-time chairman of the IAS Industrial Controls Committee. An IEEE Life Fellow, he has received an IEEE Standards Medallion, the IEEE IAS Distinguished Service Award and the IEEE Third Millennium Award.
Mr. Younkin is widely sought as a speaker and consultant on feedback control theory. He authored the definitive book, Industrial Servo Control Systems Fundamentals and Applications. He is currently a professional engineer at the Industrial Controls Consulting Division of Bull’s Eye Research, Inc. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Mr. Younkin has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, both in electrical engineering.
2005 - A. P. Meliopoulos
Dr. A. P. Meliopoulos, a professor for more than 27 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is a trailblazer in the field of safety and electromagnetic compatibility of electric power systems. His inventive analysis and design methods for grounding and power quality have greatly improved lightning protection at electric power installations and set benchmarks for the field. His current research is focused on using GPS-synchronized harmonic measurement and estimation to minimize or avoid blackouts such as the 14 August 2003 event that left much of the Northeastern United States without power. Dr. Meliopoulos has modernized many of the power system courses at Georgia Tech, and has introduced visualization and animation methodologies that dramatically boost the teaching efficiency of complex power system concepts.
A Fellow of the IEEE, Dr. Meliopoulos is the author of "Power System Grounding and Transients: An Introduction." His work is considered required reading for anyone working with grounding design problems.
2004 - Richard L. Nailen
Over the past four decades, Richard L. Nailen has been without peer in advancing the understanding and proper application of electric motors. His conversational style as an author and lecturer makes complex theory accessible even to the novice, and his publications serve as benchmarks for modern motor design.
A longtime contributor to, and now engineering editor of, Electrical Apparatus magazine, Mr. Nailen is the author of more than 450 articles on motor design and application. His books include The Plant Engineer’s Guide to Industrial Electric Motors, Motors (Volume 6, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Power Plant Electrical Reference Series), Managing Controls and Managing Motors. An expert at communicating technical information clearly and concisely, he has presented numerous university extension courses, seminars and workshops. He also helped create and, from 1991-1998, teach an EPRI class in motor applications for utility personnel nationwide and across Canada.
Richard L. Nailen was born on 2 January 1928 in San Jose, California and received a bachelor in electrical engineering, with honors, from the University of Santa Clara, California, in 1950. After 14 years as a design engineer with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, he spent more than two decades as chief electrical engineer for the Louis Allis Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1985, he joined Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as project engineer. Since retiring in 1995, Mr. Nailen has acted as a consultant on large induction motor issues.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Mr. Nailen is a member emeritus of the IEEE Industry and Applications Society (IAS) Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee (PCIC), the PCIC Working Group for P1566 and the PCIC Papers Review, Refining and Safety Subcommittees. He has served on the IAS Organization Manual and Membership Directory Committee, the IEEE Standard 1068 (Motor Repair and Rewind) Working Group, the IEEE Red Book Chapter 4 Working Group, and several PCIC Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (I&CPS) committees and subcommittees, among others. Mr. Nailen is the author of several prize-winning papers He currently serves on the Technical Services Committee of the Electrical Apparatus Service Association.
2003 - Edward LaVerne Owen
For more than 35 years, Edward L. Owen has been a leading researcher, teacher and advisor in the development and application of motors for rotating machines. Since joining General Electric (GE) Company in 1962, he has set a new standard for their analysis and evaluation.
Mr. Owen’s work in developing new evaluation techniques for equipment is credited with averting catastrophic mechanical failures. In the 1960s, there were a number of devastating failures in mining and cement equipment. In the 1970s, he significantly advanced understanding of machine winding insulation and helped to develop standards with important implications for motors and generators. In the 1980s, he facilitated consensus between manufacturers and users on the requirements for rotating machines.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s, GE sought ways to reduce energy consumption by improving electric motors and drives. Key to achieving this objective was obtaining massive conversion from traditional constant-speed motors to newer adjustable-speed drives. Design and application practices were in turmoil and Owen’s 1981 watershed paper on Load Commutated Inverter (LCI) for synchronous motor drives solved the design conflicts. He wrote that to obtain the best performance and reliability, the motor and electronics had to be treated as a system, each specifically designed to work with the other. Even after 20 years of power electronics evolution, this concept has remained the conventional wisdom.
Mr. Owen now serves as a consulting engineer to GE and others in the industry, focusing mainly on power conversion and forensic investigations into major failures.
Edward L. Owen was born 3 July 1940, in Polk County, Mo. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1963.
A Senior Member of the IEEE and past chairman and historian of the IEEE chapter in Schenectady, N.Y., Mr. Owen is the chairman of the Schenectady chapter of the Industry Application Society, past vice-chairman of the Schenectady chapter of the New York Society of Engineers and member of the Schenectady Hall of History Foundation Board of Trustees. He has served on numerous boards and committees of the Power Engineering Society and the Industry Application Society. He has written more than a dozen published papers, two of which earned prize paper awards.2002 - H. Landis Floyd
H. Landis Floyd, II, has been a driving force in electrical safety for over twenty years, and his work has been key to a sizeable reduction in deaths related to electrical accidents.
Mr. Floyd has been working in electrical systems since joining the DuPont Company in 1973. In response to a growing number of injuries and fatalities in industrial electrical accidents during the 1980s, Mr. Floyd set out to improve electrical safety standards while expanding knowledge of electrical injuries to improve treatment of industrial electric-accident victims. He has been working toward a vision of a workplace free from electrical injuries.
Mr. Floyd instigated a novel collaboration of industry, government, and academia to prevent and treat electrical injuries. This collaboration has evolved into the annual IEEE Industry Applications Society Electrical Safety Workshop. He convened the first industry forum to address arc flash as a unique hazard in 1987. With the group, Mr. Floyd helped to classify electric arc flash, which accounts for up to 80 percent of electrical injuries, as a condition distinct from electric shock. This work led to revisions of US and IEEE policies and advances in the design of industrial power systems and protective equipment.
Mr. Floyd’s efforts resulted in the publishing of IEEE standard 902-1998 and the establishment of IEEE Standards Working Group P1657, both aimed at improved industrial electrical safety. Mr. Floyd’s colleagues credit him as a major force in the 50 percent reduction in electrical incident fatalities since 1986.
H. Landis Floyd, II, was born 11 January 1950, in Waynesboro, Virginia. He earned his B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1973. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Delaware.
Mr. Floyd is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Executive Board, and a past member of the IEEE Standards Board. He has held numerous leadership positions related to electrical safety in the IEEE. Mr. Floyd is currently a senior consultant to DuPont, Vice Chairman of the board of directors at the Electrical Safety Foundation International, and a member of Panel 1 of the National Electric Code. He has co-authored more than 20 papers on electrical safety, and has earned seven prize paper awards. He has been awarded the 1999 IAS Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee Electrical Safety Excellence Award, along with numerous other awards and honors.
