ECE, along with the Power & Energy Center at Virginia Tech, are proud to announce Mona Ghassemi received the NSF CAREER Award and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award. Ghassemi is the only faculty in ECE to receive both in the same year since 2003.

Mona Ghassemi received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees (Hons.) in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 2007 and 2012, respectively.

She spent two years researching, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, at the High Voltage Laboratory of the University of Quebec, QC, Canada, from 2013 to 2015. She was also a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Electrical Insulation Research Center, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA, from 2015 to 2017. In 2017, She joined the ECE Department, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, as an Assistant Professor.

Her research interests include electrical insulation materials and systems, high voltage/field technology, Multiphysics modeling, electromagnetic transients in power systems, and power system analysis and modeling.

NSF CAREER Award

Title: Accelerated Insulation Aging due to Fast, Repetitive Voltage Pulses from Wide Bandgap Power Electronics

Duration: 2020-2025

Duration: $500,000

Abstract: This research endeavor aims to study the accelerated insulation aging in power system components such as rotating machines, transformers, cables and cable terminations, etc. under WBG-based voltages. Moreover, high-frequency thermal-electromagnetic transient models for the mentioned components will be developed to determine (i) overvoltages, (ii) electrical stress, and (iii) thermal stress under WBG-based voltages pluses.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award

Title: Characterization, Multiphysics Modeling, and Mitigation of Insulation Material Degradation and Breakdown

Duration: 2020-2023

Duration: $450,000

Abstract: The specific objectives of this research include developing Multiphysics models to understand the mechanisms and phenomena behind breakdown in insulators under low pressure and harsh (temperature in -60C 180C, and humidity in 0-100% ranges) environments.