IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics
About the Award
The IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics recognizes the work of engineers working in the field of power electronics that has shown or is likely to show a major impact on the industry and the resulting products possibly on society. Since 2019, it has been dedicated to the memory of William McMurray of General Electric in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Award Prize:
- Plaque
- An honorarium of USD 3,500
- Reimbursement of up to USD 1,000 towards the recipient’s necessary conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs incurred to attend the award ceremony
Submitting a Nominee
When submitting a nominee, you will be asked to log into your existing IEEE account (or register for a new one) to identify as a nominator. Subsequently, select the IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics and enter the required data and documents.
The portal to submit a nomination is now closed.
Award Details
Recognizing Outstanding Achievements
2024 Honoree:
Don Tan
for pioneering industry first contributions and impactful leadership in advancing space power electronics and power systems
Dr. Tan is with NGSS, where he served up to executive level as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power Conversion, program manager, department manager, and center director (acting). Don earned his PhD from Caltech and is an IEEE fellow. Well-recognized as a visionary leader in ultra-efficient power conversion and electronic energy systems, he has pioneered breakthrough innovations with high-impact industry firsts and record performances that “significantly enhance our national security.” Recently-deployed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), winner of Time magazine’s Invention of the Year Award in 2022 and the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 2023 (The trophy recognizes the greatest achievement in aerospace and astronautics in America), represents human’s most power telescope for a historical mission. His suite of the world-class electronics performed flawlessly for JWST on orbit with record-breaking performances.
Dr. Tan has received 60+ awards/recognitions and delivered 70+ keynotes/invited presentations across the globe. He is, among others, Chair, IEEE Fellow Committee, IEEE Board of Directors and Steering Committee Chair, IEEE PELS/PES eGrid. He was Director, IEEE Board of Directors, PELS Long Range Planning Committee Chair, Nomination Committee Chair, PELS President, Editor-in-Chief (Founding) for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, General Conference Chair for APEC, Vice President-Operations, Guest Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Fellow Committee, Vice President-Meetings, IEEE Chair for IEEE/Google Little Box Challenge (awarded $1M cash prize), and IEEE/DoD Working Group Chair, developed IEEE/ANSI stds 1515/1573. He serves on many national/international award/review/selection committees.
Eligibility Requirements & Criteria
Eligibility: Any active IEEE member is eligible to receive this award. There is no restriction on affiliation, age, gender, IEEE member grade, or nationality.
Criteria: Judgment of the nominees will be based on the following criteria:
- Advancement of the technology
- Benefit to the society
- Impact on the relevant technical community and profession
- Past relevant activities in the field
- Patents, inventions, products, and design
- Quality of technical achievement and contribution to the field
- The quality of the nomination
- Validated impact on products
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient Name |
| 2023 | Shinzo Tamai |
| 2022 | Noriko Kawakami |
| 2021 | Amit Gupta |
| 2020 | Patrick Chapman |
Questions?
Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.