IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014 - 10

A Look Back

by Philip Krein

The Evolution of the
IEEE Power Electronics Society

ast year, the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) celebrated its 25th anniversary.
PELS grew from the long-term efforts
of those who founded our predecessor conferences, the IEEE Power
Electronics Specialists Conference
(PESC), which is now the Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition
(ECCE), and the International Telecommunications Energy Conference
(INTELEC). As these conferences
grew and nucleated a strong technical
community, a core group worked to
secure a home in the IEEE where
power electronics could thrive.
The IEEE Power Electronics
Council was formed in 1983 to organize these activities across the IEEE.
W.W. "Trey" Burns was the first Council president. The Council established
many of the activities that formed the
foundations of the present Society, including IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics and the Applied Power
Electronics Conference (APEC), both
of which started in 1986. With these in
place and the rapid growth in activities, it quickly became appropriate to
form a Society. These efforts followed
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2014.2301214
Date of publication: 11 March 2014

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

There are many who have been
from the maturation of power elecinvolved in PELS since before it was
tronics as a distinct technical field in
a Council, but we owe a great deal to
the 1980s. The second Council presimany departed visionaries, including
dent, John Kassakian, invested an
William Newell, Joseph Suozzi, Harry
extensive amount of time and effort
Owen, Richard Hoft, R.D. Middlein carrying out the process and was
brook, Richard Bass, and others comselected as the first PELS president
memorated with our awards. A video
when the Society was inaugurated on
was prepared fea1 January 1988.
turing an interview
The Society has
with Trey Bur ns,
many unique distincThe Society has many
John Kassakian, and
tions. It has been
unique distinctions. It
Tom Wilson, who
on a short list of
has been on a short list
were instrumental in
the fastest-growing
PESC, the Council,
IEEE Societies for
of the fastest-growing
and, ultimately, the
its entire existence.
IEEE Societies for its
Society as leaders
It was one of the first
entire existence.
of the core founding
groups to establish
group. This video is
a for mal inter naavailable on the Sotional site rotation
ciety's Web site.
for its major conferences, PESC and
Power electronics is driving the
INTELEC. It serves as a model for
21st-century energy revolution. As
intersociety collaboration and coopit grows to become universal as the
eration as most of its conferences and
enabler of nearly everything that
publications are jointly sponsored. It
processes or uses energy, the opporhas embraced new outreach models
tunities and the future are bright. We
that include professional development
encourage you as part of the power
seminars, Web short courses, stuelectronics community to help condent competitions, and many others.
tinue and lead these vital endeavors.
ECCE is becoming an international
conference series to offer balanced
global opportunities for networking

and learning.

z March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014