McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics
The IEEE McMurray Award for Industry Achievements in Power Electronics recognizes the work of engineers working in the field of power electronics, which has shown or is likely to show a major impact on the industry, and the resulting products possibly on society. This award was approved in June 2019.
Eligibility: Any active IEEE member is eligible to receive this award. There is no restriction on nationality, age, gender, or IEEE member grade. An award will be given to a single person only.
Award Items:
- Award plaque
- One-time 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 applications is now open. Please submit your nomination by 31 March 2023.
Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.
2022 Honoree:
Noriko Kawakami
For contributions to large-capacity power converters and their applications to industry and utility
Dr. Noriko Kawakami (M’95-SM’16-F’18) is Senior Fellow in the Power Electronics Systems Division at Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC).
She has conducted a comprehensive development and design on high-power grid-connected converters and inverters, and their applications to distributed energy sources such as fuel cells, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems, and their sophisticated control systems, including HVDC systems employing MMC topology.
She received the Transactions Prize Paper Award in 2010 and the Technical Development Award in 2000 from IEEJ (the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan). In 2003, she moved from Toshiba Corp. to Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC). She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology based on her work on control systems for large-capacity self-commutated converters in 2008.
She served as the President of the Industry Applications Society of IEE-Japan from 2018 to 2020.
Dr. Kawakami has served as a technical program committee member for many conferences such as the IEEE ECCE and INTELEC and as a vice chair for the organizing committee of IPEC 2018 ECCE Asia. She has been a members-at-Large of IEEE PELS since 2018, an editor of IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics (JESTPE) since 2021, a regional distinguished lecturer of R10 since 2020 and a member of IEEE Industry Engagement Committee (IEC) since 2022.
She was elevated to IEEE Fellow for contributions to large-capacity power converters and applications in 2018.
Year | Recipient Name | Reason |
2021 | Amit Gupta | For the leadership in advancing power conversion systems for aerospace, train, and wind turbine power systems |
2020 | Patrick Chapman | For leadership in high-reliability inverters and renewable energy systems |