Philip Krein

2003 William E. Newell Power Electronics Award Recipient

 



Philip T. Krein received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and the A.B. degree in economics from Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana.  He was the first Henry Ford II scholar at the University of Illinois.  From 1984-87 he was an engineer with Tektronix, Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon, where he was involved in the development of a drop-on-demand ink jet and a capacitive touch panel system for instrument interfaces.

In 1987, he returned to the University of Illinois as a faculty member.  He developed the modern power electronics curriculum at Illinois, including a new undergraduate laboratory for electric machines and power electronics.  He organized large team projects in the curriculum, serving as faculty advisor for the University's award-winning Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Program.  This effort involved about 400 students over a four-year period.  He serves as advisor for the Future Energy Challenge student teams.  At present, he is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds the Grainger Endowed Director's Chair in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics.

 

His research has involved a range of areas in power electronics and machinery, with emphasis on nonlinear large signal analysis and control techniques.  With the late Richard Bass, he performed fundamental work that justified and extended state-space averaging methods based on general system averaging theory.  He introduced the "ripple correlation" control method to use converter ripple signals for optimization of power or efficiency. 

 

A 2000 paper showed how noise imposed on a PWM control process induces dc offset at the converter output.  He is the author of the undergraduate textbook "Elements of Power Electronics" (Oxford University Press, 1998).  From 1997-98 he was a senior Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Reader at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom.  Since 1999, he has been Director of the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics at the University of Illinois.  Dr. Krein is a Registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and Oregon, and holds ten U.S. and European patents.  In 1987, he received a Tektronix Key Achievement Award.  In 1990, he received the First Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Industry Applications Society.  In 1999, he was selected a University Scholar, the highest research award of the University of Illinois.  In 2000, he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE and received an IEEE Third Millennium Medal.

 

Dr. Krein chaired PESC'97 and will chair the 2004 IEEE Workshop on Computers in Power Electronics (COMPEL'04).  He was President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society in 1999 and 2000.  This year, he was elected as IEEE Division II Director, and serves on the IEEE Board of Directors.  He is also Editor of the IEEE Power Electronics Letters electronic journal.

Source: Flyer from Award Presentation