Members in the Spotlight

Prof. Kamal Al-Haddad received the 2014 Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award

Prof. Kamal Al-Haddad from École de Technologie Supérieure, Montréal, receives the 2014 Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award, presented each year by the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES). He is flanked on the left by 2014 IES President Prof. John Y. Hung and on the right by IES Vice President for Publications Prof. Xinghuo Yu.

Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award is designed to recognize exceptional contributions in the field of industrial electronics.

Professor Al-Haddad is the second Canadian to receive the Award since its inception in 1975. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Electrical Energy Conversion and in Power Electronics and is the Director of the Power Electronics and Industrial Control Research Group (GREPCI) at ÉTS.

Professor Bruce Francis won the 2015 IEEE Control Systems Award

Emeritus Professor Bruce Francis, from University of Toronto, has won the 2015 IEEE Control Systems Award, the highest honour in the field of control bestowed by the IEEE, for "pioneering contributions to H-infinity, linear-multivariable, and digital control."

Established in 1980 by the IEEE Board of Directors, this award recognizes an individual’s "outstanding contributions to control systems engineering, science, or technology" and considers the seminal nature, depth, and breadth of contributions, as well as singular achievement and practical impact.

Professor Bruce Francis is one of just three Canadians to receive the IEEE Control Systems Award.

The Masoud Farzaneh Prize Awarded to Dr. William A. Chisholm

The fourth Masoud Farzaneh prize was awarded to Dr. William A. Chisholm at the occasion of a special ceremony held on November 11, 2014, at University of Quebec in Chicoutimi (UQAC), in presence of the UQAC Foundation President, the Academic Vice-President, and many distinguished guests.

             Prof. Masoud Farzaneh and Dr. William A. Chisholm             Photo credit: Denis Blackburn

This prize was established by UQAC in honor of Professor Masoud Farzaneh, an internationally renowned researcher in the field of power transmission and distribution in cold climate regions whose contributions and impact has made UQAC a world leader in this domain. It is granted every other year to a researcher for outstanding contributions to the field of power transmission and distribution, in cold climate regions. The prize is accompanied by a trophy which is a work of art created by the renowned artist Guiseppe Benedetto. It consists of a pylon supporting an insulator representing the terrestrial globe and electric energy.

The award recipient, Dr. William A. Chisholm, received the prize this year for his contribution to understanding icing flashovers on power networks. He is an internationally renowned expert on the harmful effects of weather on overhead power lines. During his career with Ontario Hydro (Hydro One), he set up operational programs for lightening localization, line thermal rating and monitoring of insulator pollution. He presented conferences and worked as consultant in a dozen of countries. He actively contributed at the elaboration of many IEEE standards and CIGRE technical brochures. He was elected Fellow of IEEE in 2007 and, in 2014, became President of the Transmission and Distribution Committee of IEEE Power and Energy Society.Since his retirement in 2007, he has carried out involved research projects at CIGELE laboratories at UQAC on icing flashovers of insulators. In 2009, he co-authored with Masoud Farzaneh a reference book entitled Insulators for Icing and Polluted Environments at IEEE/Wiley. He is also co-authored with him a textbook entitled Electrical Design of Overhead Power Transmission Lines, published at McGraw Hill, in 2013.

Prof. David Plant received 2013-2015 Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts

Prof. David Plant, from McGill University, received 2013-2015 Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Killam Research Fellowships supports scholars engaged in research projects of outstanding merit in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, engineering and interdisciplinary studies within these fields.

Prof. David Plant’s research project is to build tomorrow’s internet, by improving the fiber optics networks that are its backbone. The Fellowships provide $70,000 a year for two years to the project.