IEEE PELS Milan M. Jovanović Award for Power Electronics Emerging Technology
About the Award
The IEEE PELS Milan M. Jovanović Award for Power Electronics Emerging Technology recognizes engineers and researchers who have made outstanding technical contributions to one or more emerging research topics in power electronics.
Milan M. Jovanović’s contributions to the field were exemplary, and this award is a lasting tribute to his groundbreaking work. For over 40 years, Dr. Jovanović innovated more efficient ways of supplying electrical energy to information technology devices with smaller sizes and weights, from smartphones to data centers of major Internet companies such as Google and Facebook. He led research teams in developing numerous power supply techniques that are used in hundreds of millions of devices made by Delta Electronics and other manufacturers, enabling further miniaturization of electronics equipment and resulting in enormous cumulative energy savings and electronic-material waste reduction. Our world is a greener place thanks to Milan’s work.
Award Prize:
- A plaque
- An honorarium of 1,500 USD
Necessary conference registration, travel and accommodation costs incurred to attend the award ceremony can be reimbursed as follows:
The amount is limited to
– USD 1,000 or — if a flight with a flying time over six hours is included — USD 2,000
– the award honorarium
whatever is lower
Submitting a Nominee
When submitting a nominee, you will be asked to log into your existing IEEE account (or register for a new one) to identify as a nominator. Subsequently, select the IEEE PELS Milan M. Jovanović Award for Power Electronics Emerging Technology and enter the required data and documents.
2024 Topic Areas
- Power electronics applications, including but not limited to robotics, space, electrified aviation, and other transportation sectors
- Power electronics circuits and systems, including but not limited to advanced converter architectures, EMI/EMC, 3D packaging
- Power electronics components, including but not limited to WBG devices, advanced magnetics, capacitors, and other passive components
The portal to submit a nomination is now closed.
Award Details
Recognizing Outstanding Achievements
2024 Honoree:
Udaya K. Madawala
for outstanding contributions to bi-directional wireless power transfer technology
Udaya K. Madawala graduated with a B.Sc. (Electrical Engineering) (Hons) degree from The University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and received his PhD (Power Electronics) from The University of Auckland, New Zealand as a Commonwealth Doctoral Scholar. At the completion of his PhD, he was employed by Fisher & Paykel Ltd, New Zealand, as a Research and Development Engineer to develop new technologies for motor drives. At present as a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Auckland, New Zealand, he leads a group of researchers focusing on a number of power electronics projects that are related to energy and wireless EV charging systems for V2X applications.
Udaya is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Industrial Electronic Society (IES), and has both industry and research experience in the fields of power electronics and energy. He has served both the IEEE Power Electronics and Industrial Electronics Societies in numerous roles, relating to editorial, advisory, conference, technical committees and chapter activities. He was the General Chair of the 2nd IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC)- 2016, held in New Zealand, and is also the Chair of SPEC Steering Committee and was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronic Society (PELS). He is a recipient of the 2024 University of Auckland Research Excellence Medal. Udaya, who has over 300 journal and conference publications, holds a family of patents related to wireless power transfer (WPT) and power converters, and is a consultant to industry.
Eligibility Requirements & Criteria
Eligibility: Any active IEEE members are eligible for this award. There are no other restrictions as to affiliation, age, gender, IEEE member grade, or nationality.
Criteria: Judgment of the nominees is based on the following:
- Advancement of the technology
- Benefit to the Society
- Past relevant activities to the field and PELS TC 6
- Sustained impact on PELS TC 6 and the profession
- The quality of the nomination
- The quality of technical achievement and contribution to the field
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient Name |
| 2023 | Leon Tolbert |
| 2022 | Jin Wang |
| 2021 | Grant Covic |
| 2020 | Brij Singh |
| 2019 | Chunting (Chris) Mi |
Questions?
Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.
