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
2023 Honoree:
Shinzo Tamai
For contributions to high-power applications of three-level neutral-point clamped converters in industry and utilities
Dr. Shinzo Tamai (M’96-SM’18-F’21) is currently Senior Fellow, one of the highest positions as research engineers, in the Power Electronics Systems Division at Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC).
He received his B. S., M. E., and Ph. D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1981, 1983, and 2004, respectively. He joined Mitsubishi-Electric Corporation in 1983, where he achieved research and development in the so-called “vector control” or “field-oriented control” of adjustable-speed induction motor drives. Then, he led development projects of large-capacity three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converters and their applications to ac motor drives, static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) and back-to-back (BTB) transmission systems. In 2003, he moved to Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC), where he has held several leadership positions in power electronics projects.
From 2003 to 2019, He was a board member of the Industry Applications Society (IAS) in the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ). He served as the president of the IEEJ/IAS from 2010 to 2012. He was a chair of the ECCE-Asia Coordinating Committee from 2018 to 2019. He contributed to promoting technical exchanges among Japan, South Korea and China. He was the General Chair of the Organizing Committee in the International Power Electronics Conference (IPEC-Himeji 2022) that is one of the IEEE PELS ECCE-Asia conferences. He was, and has been, a Member-At-Large of the Administrative Committee of the PELS from 2015 to 2017, and since 2019. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
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 |
| 2022 | Noriko Kawakami |
| 2021 | Amit Gupta |
| 2020 | Patrick Chapman |
Questions?
Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.