Dushan Boroyevich named to National Academy of Engineering
Dushan Boroyevich, the American Electric Power Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, is one of 67 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2014.
Boroyevich is being honored for his advancements in control, modeling, and design of electronic power conversion for electric energy and transportation. A faculty member of Virginia Tech’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he is co-director of the university’s Center for Power Electronics Systems along with Fred Lee, who was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011.
“I am honored,” said Boroyevich, who heard about his academy induction from a friend who also is a member. “As Fred Lee was my academic adviser, I thought mine was a long way off, so in that sense it was a surprise that it happened three years later. I didn’t think this would happen for the next five to 10 years.”
Boroyevich is a Fellow with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a recipient of the organization’s William E. Newell Power Electronics Technical Field Award, and a past President of its Power Electronics Society. He received the Award for Outstanding Achievements and Service to Profession by the European Power Electronics and Motion Control Council, six prize paper awards, and several awards for excellence in research and teaching at Virginia Tech.
“We are very proud that one of our most distinguished faculty members has been recognized with this prestigious honor,” said Luke F. Lester, head of the electrical and engineering department. “Dushan has been and continues to be a role model for faculty and students at Virginia Tech. The impact of his research, graduate student advisement, and professional service in the field of power electronics has been profound.”
Boroyevich’s research has focused on multi-phase power conversion, electronic power distribution systems, modeling and control, and multidisciplinary design optimization. He developed a comprehensive geometric approach to modeling and control of high-frequency switching power converters, now widely used for the analysis, design, and control of multi-phase ac power conversion systems.
He has advised more than 79 doctoral and master’s students during his time at Virginia Tech, and co-authored with them more than 650 technical publications.
In 2011, the Center for for Power Electronics Systems, along with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the University of Nottingham’s Transportation Engineering received funding from the British Council for Relations with Other Countries to support six Ph.D. scholarships for research into power electronics and transportation efforts. The funding was an expansion from a similar 2009 program between the research centers.
Boroyevich received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Belgrade in 1976 and a master’s degree from the University of Novi Sad in 1982, both in the former country of Yugoslavia, now Serbia. From 1976 to 1982, he was an instructor at the University of Novi Sad’s Institute for Power and Electronic Engineering, working to establish its electronics program.
After three-plus years on doctoral studies at Virginia Tech under a General Electric Co. Fellowship, Boroyevich returned to Novi Sad in 1986 as an assistant professor, where he founded the university’s power and industrial electronics research and education programs. He earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1986. He joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1990.
In 1996 he became associate director of Virginia Power Electronics Center, founded 10 years prior by Lee. In 1998, Boroyevich and Lee worked with faculty from Virginia Tech, and from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and North Carolina A&T State University to form the Center for Power Electronics Systems, the first U.S. national engineering research center in the area of power electronics, funded by the National Science Foundation.
Working in partnership with more than 80 companies, the center has become the most renowned power electronics research and education center in the world, boasting more than 20 faculty members and more than 200 research students on staff, during the center’s years under the National Science Foundation.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions awarded to engineers, according to the organization’s website. Inductees are honored for contributions to research, practice, or education, and for developing new fields of technology and other major advancements in the field of engineering. There are a total 2,250 U.S. members of the academy.
