Fred Lee, University Distinguished Professor, has been chosen to receive the 2015 IEEE Medal in Power Engineering for his contributions to power electronics, especially high-frequency power conversion.

Established in 2008, the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering is sponsored by IEEE Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics, Power Electronics, and Power and Energy Societies.

The IEEE Awards Program pays tribute to educators, researchers, inventors, innovators, engineers and scientists whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society and the engineering profession.

Fred Lee

Lee is an internationally recognized leader in power electronics research. He is the founding director of Virginia Tech's Center for Power Electronics (CPES), which works to improve the performance, reliability and cost-efficiency of electric energy processing systems using an integrated system approach.

CPES is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center that has become a pre-eminent academic center for power electronics research. Its collaboration with industry has been especially productive. Industry-sponsored graduate fellowships produce important breakthroughs that are available to all industry partners on a royalty-free and non-exclusive basis.

Lee was recently asked to speak on energy and power electronics at University of Miami's College of Engineering, discussing smart power grids and the integration of wind power, solar power and energy storage systems, and how power electronics can help the U.S. energy system increase its efficiency to meet sustainability goals.

Lee was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011, an elite group of engineers that provides engineering leadership as a service to the United States government. In 2012, Lee was inducted into the Virginia Tech Faculty Entrepreneur Hall of Fame and elected to the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top academic institution.

Lee joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1977. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Duke University.