Keynote Speakers
(alphabetic order)
Dr Arshad Mansoor
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Arshad Mansoor is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), responsible for the institute’s operation and its portfolio of R&D and demonstration programs, spanning all sources of generation, power delivery and utilization, and the environment.
Previously Mansoor served as senior vice president, research and development, responsible for leading the development of the R&D portfolio, effective collaboration in shaping and conducting research, and the effective application of research findings, including technology transfer. Prior to that, as vice president of EPRI’s Power Delivery and Utilization sector, he led research, development, demonstration, and application of transmission and distribution and energy utilization technologies. He was vice president then CEO of the former EPRI subsidiary, EPRI Solutions, and vice president and director of engineering of the EPRI Power Electronics Application Center.
Beginning in 2007, he directed EPRI’s Energy Efficiency Initiative to facilitate smarter power delivery and end-use. In 2012 Mansoor launched EPRI’s Integrated Grid initiative, charting a course for the electricity sector to integrate distributed resources such as rooftop solar and onsite energy storage with utilities’ central generation, transmission, and distribution systems.
More recently, he has guided and shaped EPRI’s Efficient Electrification Initiative, examining the potential for economywide electrification to reduce overall energy demand and emissions while improving economic efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Today he is driving low-carbon research spanning the evolving energy system, interconnected energy technologies and emerging resources such as hydrogen. Focused on accelerating decarbonization across the economy, this work is identifying effective pathways to double by 2030 the U.S. energy-related CO2 emission reductions achieved since 2005 — and to enable a more than 80 percent reduction by 2050.
Mansoor holds five U.S. patents in power electronics and distributed energy resources. He is a senior member of the IEEE and served as vice president of the U.S. National Committee of CIGRE, the international council on large electric systems, and as a member of the board for the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has published numerous papers in journals and conference proceedings and has given talks and participated in panels at leading technical forums worldwide.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Mansoor earned his Master of Science (1992) and doctorate (1994) in electrical engineering, focusing on power systems engineering from the University of Texas in Austin. He completed the MIT Reactor Technology Course and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.
Frank C. Lambert
IEEE PES President
Frank Lambert is a Principal Research Engineer and the Associate Director of the National Electric Energy Testing, Research and Applications Center (NEETRAC) at Georgia Tech. He has more than 43 years of experience in transmission / distribution system design, construction, operation, maintenance, automation, and R&D and is responsible for interfacing with NEETRAC’s members to develop and conduct research projects dealing with transmission and distribution issues.
Frank was part of NEETRAC’s management team at its launch in 1996. Previously, he was Distribution Manager at Georgia Power Company responsible for AM/FM/GIS, Distribution Automation, and Construction Management Systems. During his career with Georgia Power, he served as a field Distribution Engineer, field Transmission Engineer, Research Engineer, Network Underground Test Supervisor, Research Manager, and Manager of Network Underground. Frank received his BEE and MSEE degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a registered Professional Engineer in Georgia.
Dr Imre Gyuk
Department of Energy, United States of America
Dr. Imre Gyuk is Director of Energy Storage Research at the U.S. Department of Energy. For the past 2 decades, he has directed work on a wide portfolio of storage technologies for a broad spectrum of applications. He supervised the $185M ARRA stimulus funding for Grid Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations and is now partnering with the states on numerous projects for grid resilience. Dr. Gyuk’s Program includes research on materials, devices, and systems; it also funds work on analytics, policy, finance, and most recently, social equity and long duration storage… His work has led to 12 R&D 100 awards, two EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from ESA and NAATBatt. He is internationally recognized as a leader in the energy storage field.
After receiving a B.S. from Fordham University, Dr. Gyuk did graduate work at Brown University on Superconductivity. Having received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics from Purdue University he became a Research Associate at Syracuse. As an Assistant Professor he taught Physics, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Architecture at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Gyuk became an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Kuwait University where he became interested in issues of sustainability.