Congratulating CPES Director, Fred C. Lee - VT Scholar of the Week

Fred C. Lee has been named Scholar of the Week by Virginia Tech’s Office of the Vice President for Research. This is in recognition of his leadership and research resulting in small, powerful, efficient power conversion and control technology.
Full story on OVPR website

The goals of the Scholar of the Week are to recognize individuals while also telling people about research and scholarly activities at the university. Recognition is based on research and/or scholarship.

Prof. Fred C. Lee, CPES Director and University Distinguished Professor, started the Power Electronics Research Group (PERG) at Virginia Tech in 1977. In 1983, he founded the Virginia Power Electronics Center (VPEC) and the VPEC Industry Partnership Program.  Under his direction, VPEC became one of the largest university-based power electronics research centers in the nation. His leadership and achievements in power electronics research and scholarship, coupled with strong connectivity with academicians, and industry and government sponsors in the field, brought together the key elements for winning the prestigious National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC) award in 1998. With a university consortium of 5 partner universities and an industry consortium of over 80 members, the Center for Power Electronics Systems was established.

Over the 10-year NSF ERC program, the CPES research team worked synergistically to expand the IPEM (Integrated Power Electronics Module) concept for power electronics systems integration to a wide range of next-generation energy efficient and environmentally friendly applications. The Center has enjoyed success over the years, as cited by the NSF Site Visit Team:

“CPES has world-class research activities in drives and converters and other research programs that build on those strengths.” (2004)

“The Industrial Collaboration Program of CPES can be held up as a model for other Engineering Research Centers.” (2001)

“The education program offered through CPES is truly exceptional and can be a model for other centers.” (2004)

For more information on CPES, please visit www.cpes.vt.edu.

Facts at a glance
Research Organization
Center Program Snapshot (downloadable document bookmarked for easy navigation)


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