Wide Bandgap Power Electronics

Isik C. Kizilyalli, Ph.D., currently serves as the Senior Director of Technology at the Sustainability Accelerator at the John Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. Previously, he was the Associate Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy. In this role, Dr. Kizilyalli supported and oversaw all technology issues relating to ARPA-E’s programs, assisted with program development, recruited Program Directors and Fellows, and coordinated project management across the Agency. Dr. Kizilyalli’s focus at ARPA-E included power electronics, wide bandgap semiconductors, electronic systems for hostile environments, electrification of transport (aviation, ships, automotive), subsurface instrumentation, novel drilling concepts, medium-voltage DC distribution grids, and grid resiliency against EMP and space weather threats. Before joining ARPA-E, he served as founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technical Officer of Avogy Inc., a venture-backed start-up focused on bulk GaN-based vertical power semiconductor technologies and power electronics. Formerly, he was with Bell Laboratories, followed by Nitronex Corporation and solar PV startup Alta Devices where his team holds the world record for single-junction solar cell conversion efficiency. Dr. Kizilyalli was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2007 for his contributions to” Integrated Circuit Technology.” He received the Bell Laboratories’ Distinguished Member of Technical Staff award and the Best Paper Award at the International Symposium on Power Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits in 2013. He holds his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Metallurgy, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has published more than 100 papers and holds 127 issued U.S. patents.

Z. John Shen, Ph.D., is currently a Professor and Director of the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has over 30 years of industrial, academic, and entrepreneurial experience in power electronics and power semiconductor devices, with over 300 publications and 18 issued U.S. patents in these areas. He has been involved in circuit breaker research since 2013 and is an inventor of several patents and an author of over 30 publications on the subject. He was Grainger Chair Professor of Electrical and Power Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, between 2013 and 2021. Dr. Shen has served the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) in various capacities, including Vice President of Products, AdCom member, Chair of the Distinguished Lecturers Program, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine, Guest Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and the IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. He has been on the organizing or technical program committee of over 30 international conferences in the field and served as the General Chair of the 2016 Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE2016) and the 2018 International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC’s (ISPSD2018). Dr. Shen is a Fellow of the IEEE and the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. He received his B.S. from Tsinghua University in China and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, all in electrical engineering, respectively. He is a co-editor of the book Direct Current Fault Protection: Basic Concepts and Technology Advances (Springer, 2023).

Thomas Jahns, Ph.D., is the Grainger Emeritus Professor of Power Electronics and Electric Machines at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. After earning his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1978, Prof. Jahns served in several engineering research positions for 13 years at GE Corporate Research and Development. From 1996 to 1998, he returned to MIT as a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the MIT Consortium on Advanced Automotive Electrical/Electronic Components and Systems. He joined UW-Madison in 1998 and served as a Co-Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC) for 17 years.  An expert in power electronics, electric machines, drives, and power conversion, Prof. Jahns has conducted research in a wide variety of areas ranging from the development of high-performance permanent magnet machines used in a large majority of the commercial hybrid- and battery-electric vehicles to the integration of distributed renewable energy sources and energy storage into the utility grid system using microgrids. In recent years, he has focused his research on integrated motor drives and electrified transportation, merging them in developing high-power-density MW-class motor drives for future aircraft electric propulsion systems. Prof. Jahns has been honored with numerous prestigious awards throughout his career in academia and industry. He became an IEEE Fellow in 1993 and received the IEEE Nikola Tesla Technical Field Award in 2005 “for pioneering contributions to the design and application of AC permanent magnet machines.”  Prof. Jahns served as the fourth President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society from 1995 to 1996 and an elected member of the IEEE Board of Directors from 2001 to 2002. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2015 and received the IEEE Medal for Power Engineering in 2022.

Daniel Cunningham, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, where he oversees their program portfolio and helps prepare innovative energy technologies for the transition to commercialization. Before ARPA-E, he worked at BP PLC in the Chief Scientist’s Office, evaluating emerging energy technologies such as energy storage and alternative fuel pathways and assessing their impact on future business. Dr. Cunningham also worked at BP Solar Inc., serving in multiple capacities, including as the Director of Product Development, leading a multidisciplinary team to develop new technologies for BP Solar’s product line. Here, he was responsible for bringing technologies to market, using innovative materials and manufacturing processes to enhance performance and reduce costs. He also took on the role of Director of Technology, where he led an R&D engineering team to develop and manufacture electrochemically deposited, thin-film CdTe devices for use in photovoltaic applications. He received a Research Partnership Award in 2001 from the U.S. Department of Energy (EERE) for work in this area. He has extensive experience in semiconductor crystal growth and processing, including PV module packaging and product reliability. Dr. Cunningham has authored over 70 publications, 12 patent publications, and is a co-editor of the book Direct Current Fault Protection: Basic Concepts and Technology Advances (Springer, 2023). He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry specializing in electrochemistry and in-situ reflectance spectroscopy and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry with Chartered Chemist (CChem) status.