IEEE PELS - William E. Newell Award
Until 2006, the William E. Newell Power Electronics Award was presented annually by the Power Electronics Society for outstanding achievement in power electronics. It is dedicated to the memory of Dr. William E. Newell of the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Awarded annually since 1977, this award has come to represent recognition by one's peers as an outstanding contributor to the field of power electronics. In 2005, the award was elevated to an IEEE Technical Field Award with the first award presented in 2006.
Accomplishments by which an individual is judged to have made outstanding contributions encompass a broad range of activities and include teaching, innovative research, consulting endeavors, professional seminars, major project or program management, and the general communication and advocacy of power electronics technology to the technical community as a whole. The technical disciplines which encompass the field of power electronics include the analysis, design, development, simulation, and application of electronic devices, magnetics, controls, and power circuits for inverters, converters, and motor drives, ranging in power levels from fractions of a watt to megawatts.
Dr. William E. Newell was a noted authority on power electronics at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Research and Development Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until his untimely death in 1976.
He devoted much of his life to helping practicing engineers and students better understand the field of power electronics. He both taught internal courses at Westinghouse and courses at Carnegie Mellon University. The material used in these courses was edited by J. W. Mott, Jr. after Dr. Newell's death and published as the text "Introduction to Solid State Power Electronics"
Dr. Newell pointed out the multi-disciplinary nature of power electronics and argued for making it a new discipline, planting the seeds for the IEEE Power Electronics Society.
The IEEE William E. Newell Award for outstanding achievement in power electronics was named in his honor.
|
