Society History

This page is dedicated to recording the rich history of the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) and appropriately honoring the men and women who performed their voluntary tasks with zeal and energy that far surpassed the requirements called for by the organization.  It is also to convey to future generations of engineers devoted to the application of power electronics that they do not stand alone and that their work and dedication to their chosen profession are founded on the shoulders of those who came before them.

The IEEE PELS was established as a Society on 20 June 1987, after a few years of operation as the Power Electronics Council.  This followed the gradual emergence of power electronics as a distinct discipline in the 1970s and 1980s.  Many of the early Society leaders were involved in the IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC), which began in 1970, and the IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC), which began in 1978.  The Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), which began in 1986, was an early response to growing Council interests.  Today, the Society sponsors a wide range of international conferences and worships across many application areas and topics within the field, in addition to broad conferences such as INTELEC, APEC, and the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), the successor to PESC.  The Society has grown from a few active committees to a global organization with over 11,000 members.