McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics

IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics

About the Award

The IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics recognizes the work of engineers working in the field of power electronics that has shown or is likely to show a major impact on the industry and the resulting products possibly on society. Since 2019, it has been dedicated to the memory of William McMurray of General Electric in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Award Prize:

  • Plaque
  • An honorarium of USD 3,500
  • Reimbursement of up to USD 1,000 towards the recipient’s necessary conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs incurred to attend the award ceremony
William McMurray
William McMurray
1929 - 2006

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 McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics and enter the required data and documents.

The portal to submit a nomination is now closed.

Award Details

Recognizing Outstanding Achievements

Don Tan
2024 Honoree:

Don Tan

for pioneering industry first contributions and impactful leadership in advancing space power electronics and power systems

Dr. Tan is with NGSS, where he served up to executive level as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power Conversion, program manager, department manager, and center director (acting). Don earned his PhD from Caltech and is an IEEE fellow. Well-recognized as a visionary leader in ultra-efficient power conversion and electronic energy systems, he has pioneered breakthrough innovations with high-impact industry firsts and record performances that “significantly enhance our national security.” Recently-deployed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), winner of Time magazine’s Invention of the Year Award in 2022 and the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 2023 (The trophy recognizes the greatest achievement in aerospace and astronautics in America), represents human’s most power telescope for a historical mission. His suite of the world-class electronics performed flawlessly for JWST on orbit with record-breaking performances.

Dr. Tan has received 60+ awards/recognitions and delivered 70+ keynotes/invited presentations across the globe. He is, among others, Chair, IEEE Fellow Committee, IEEE Board of Directors and Steering Committee Chair, IEEE PELS/PES eGrid. He was Director, IEEE Board of Directors, PELS Long Range Planning Committee Chair, Nomination Committee Chair, PELS President, Editor-in-Chief (Founding) for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, General Conference Chair for APEC, Vice President-Operations, Guest Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Fellow Committee, Vice President-Meetings, IEEE Chair for IEEE/Google Little Box Challenge (awarded $1M cash prize), and IEEE/DoD Working Group Chair, developed IEEE/ANSI stds 1515/1573. He serves on many national/international award/review/selection committees.

Eligibility Requirements & Criteria

Eligibility: Any active IEEE member is eligible to receive this award. There is no restriction on affiliation, age, gender, IEEE member grade, or nationality.

Criteria: Judgment of the nominees will be based on the following criteria:

  • Advancement of the technology
  • Benefit to the society
  • Impact on the relevant technical community and profession
  • Past relevant activities in the field
  • Patents, inventions, products, and design
  • Quality of technical achievement and contribution to the field
  • The quality of the nomination
  • Validated impact on products

Past Recipients

Year Recipient Name
2023 Shinzo Tamai
2022 Noriko Kawakami
2021 Amit Gupta
2020 Patrick Chapman

Questions?

Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.