IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award
About the Award
The IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award honors an individual who has accomplished outstanding contributions in the technical field of power electronics within one or more subfields, such as modeling and control, design-oriented analysis, development, simulation, and application of electronic devices, passive components, analog sensing, and power circuits for inverters, converters, and motor drives in all power levels.
Award Prize:
- Bronze medal
- Plaque
- An honorarium of USD 5,000
- Reimbursement of up to USD 1,000 towards the recipient’s necessary conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs incurred to attend the award ceremony
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 R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award and enter the required data and documents.
***Please note: 3 to 5 endorsement letters will be required and must contain the following: name, title, contact data, endorser’s main field of interest, the relationship between the endorser and nominee, nominee’s achievements for the selection criteria indicated in the award description, the reason why the endorser personally recommends the nominee, endorser’s signature, and date.***
The portal to submit a nomination is now closed.
Award Details
Recognizing Outstanding Achievements
2024 Honoree:
Keyue Smedley
for contributions to control and topology development for high performance power conversion
Keyue Smedley received her BS (1982) and MS (1985) in EE from Zhejiang University and her Ph.D. (1991) in EE from Caltech.
Dr. Smedley was the chief designer of magnet power converters for all accelerator rings at DOE Superconducting Super Collider Lab in early 1990s. She is currently a Professor in EECS, University of California, Irvine (UCI) and Founder/Director of the UCI Power Electronics Lab since 1992. In addition, she is a co-founder of One-Cycle Control, Inc., that commercializes OCC technology.
Dr. Smedley is world-renowned for her pioneering work in power electronics, particularly for inventing the One-Cycle Control (OCC) method. Initially groundbreaking in high-fidelity audio applications during 1990s, OCC later unified four-quadrant control of single and three-phase power converters in the early 2000s. Today, OCC technology is widely applied across various market sectors, including professional audio, renewables, storage, power quality, grid stabilization, and defense.
Dr. Smedley’s team also invented the Hexagram multilevel converter in late 2000s, put the first fault current limiter on the US grid for demonstration in 2010s, and made breakthroughs in full-range gain control of resonant switched-capacitor converters in early 2020s.
Dr. Smedley is dedicated to innovation and impact in her field. Her research has yielded >200 publications, >15 US and international patents, two startup companies, and wide industry acceptance. She has received numerous recognitions, including UCI Innovation Award in 2005, IEEE Fellow in 2008, and a DOD Achievement Award from Pentagon in 2010 with OCC, Inc. She has been an IEEE PEL Distinguished Lecturer since 2021.
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient Name |
| 2023 | Marco Liserre |
| 2022 | Dragan Maksimovic |
| 2021 | Shu-Hung (Henry) Chung |
| 2020 | Alex Qin Huang |
| 2019 | Issa Batarseh |
| 2018 | Grahame Holmes |
| 2017 | Jian Sun |
| 2016 | Mark Dehong Xu |
| 2015 | David J. Perreault |
| 2014 | Johann Kolar |
| 2013 | William Gerard Hurley |
| 2012 | Prasad Enjeti |
Questions?
Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.
