Robert D. Lorenz
Position: Consolidated Papers Professor of Controls Engineering (ME & ECE); Integrated Motor Drive Systems (IMDS) Thrust Leader
Office: 2025 Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: lorenz@engr.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-5343
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Robert D. Lorenz received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and M.B.A. from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
In 1966-67 he did his junior year in electro-mechanical engineering at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico as part of an exchange program. In 1969-70 he did his Master thesis research in Germany on adaptive control of machine tools at the Technical University of Aachen. From 1970-1972, he served the US Army as a systems test engineer at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland where he developed systems identification methods for gun pointing control systems. From 1972 to 1982 he was a member of the research staff at the Gleason Works, in Rochester, New York working principally on high performance drives and synchronized motion control. Since 1984, he has been a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he is the Mead Witter Foundation Consolidated Papers Professor of Controls Engineering in both the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
He is Co-Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium, which celebrated its 26th anniversary in 2007. It is the largest industrial research consortium on motor drives and power electronics in the world. He is also the research leader for control and sensor integration and for integrated modular motor drives in the Center for Power Electronic Systems (CPES), an NSF Engineering Research Center. He teaches a number of advanced courses in modern control of power conversion, motor drives, and motion control and has developed a junior level course to attract young students into the field of modern power conversion.
His current research interests include sensorless electromagnetic motor/actuator technologies, power electronic device junction temperature estimation and real time control, fast signal processing and estimation techniques, precision multi-axis motion control, and ac/dc drive and high precision machine control technologies. He has authored 200 published technical papers and is the holder of 23 patents with three more pending. He has won 21 prize paper awards from the IEEE.
He was a Visiting Research Professor in the Electrical Drives Group of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium in the Summer of 1989 and in the Power Electronics & Electrical Drives Institute of the Technical University of Aachen, Aachen, Germany in the summers of 1987, 1991, 95, 97 and 99 respectively and was the SEW Eurodrive Guest Professor from Sept. 1, 2000 until July 7, 2001.
Dr. Lorenz is a long time member of the EPE International Steering Committee and in 2006, he received the EPE PEMC Outstanding Achievement Award. Dr. Lorenz is also a Fellow of the IEEE, and was IEEE Division II Director for 2005/2006. In 2003 he was awarded the IEEE IAS Outstanding Achievement award, which honors his outstanding contributions and technological developments in the application of electricity to industry. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the States of New York and Wisconsin. He is also a member of the ASME, ISA and SPIE.