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 closed.                                                                                                                

Please send any questions to the PELS Awards Committee.   

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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.