IEEE PELS - William E. Newell Award

The William E. Newell Power Electronics Award is 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.

Selection Criteria

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.

Selection Process

Each year, the PELS Awards Committee Chair chairs a Newell Award Nominating Committee. Nominations are requested from each committee member. In addition, nominations are solicited from individual IEEE members. A Nomination Form along with a sheet detailing the nomination and selection criteria and procedures are available upon request from the Chair of the Awards Committee. Supporting material is encouraged but is not mandatory.

On the first ballot members of the Section Committee, made up of past recipients of the Newell Award, rank the nominees in priority order. The three candidates who rank the highest are selected for the second ballot. The recipient is chosen from these three using an arithmetically-averaged process with priority weighting. In the event of a tie, the Awards Committee Chair, in consultation with the President and Vice-Presidents of PELS, selects the recipient.

Each and every member of PELS has an opportunity to nominate candidates and is encouraged to do so. All IEEE members are encouraged to participate to ensure that all those who truly deserve this award are not overlooked.

Nomination Form

List of Prior Recipients

William E. Newell

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.

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