IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2021 - 10

leader's corner

A FEW YEARS AGO, WHEN THE
late Patrick Ryan was in Australia during the 2011 IEEE Power & Energy
Society (PES) Innovative Smart Grid
Technologies Asia (ISGT Asia 2011)
Conference, we had a conversation on
the final night of the event. We were
on a ferry ride along with conference
delegates, enjoying the evening lights
and sounds of Perth on the Swan River.
Ryan asked my opinion about something that was just an idea at the time
but eventually became an important
PES program, namely, the PES Scholarship Plus Initiative.
I remember that the conversation
turned to volunteering and how important volunteers are in achieving
any objective in an organization such
as PES. Ryan said everything starts
and ends with volunteers! His words
are still ringing in my ears. The PES
Scholarship Plus Initiative now supports many students in North America
pursuing their education in the electrical power industry and provides internship opportunities for them in power
companies. I expressed my support for
the idea, thinking about how this initiative could benefit many countries in
Asia-Pacific. Now, in addition to North
America, the Scholarship Plus Initiative also supports students in Italy; for
the last few years, with the same passionate approach that our PES leaders
have shown in India, this program is
in its fourth year of implementation
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2020.3043649
Date of current version: 19 February 2021

ieee power & energy magazine

Dean Sharafi

Region 10
its past, present, & future

there. I hope that we can have this program in other countries in Asia-Pacific, as there has been great interest
expressed, especially from our PES
Chapter in Indonesia.
I started with a story of gratitude
for Ryan to signify the importance of
volunteering. I now want to give readers of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine a quick snapshot of Region 10.
Asia-Pacific is one of IEEE's Regions
with a strong PES presence. The region
has the largest population among all
of IEEE's Regions and the strongest
membership of the PES. We now have
46 PES Chapters, 179 Student Chapters, and 11,185 members with a steady
membership growth trend. Asia-Pacific incorporates a vast geographical
area, from Pakistan to New Zealand,
with several time zones. When our
members are preparing their dinner in
Auckland, our members in Islamabad
are about to start their workday. This
wide range of time zones resembles the
diversity of culture, education, public
infrastructure, engineering, industry,
and power system perspectives in the
numerous countries of the region.
Historically, IEEE has had a significant presence in Asia-Pacific. The
formation of Region 10 was approved
by the IEEE Board of Directors in
1966; however, the Institute of Radio
Engineers had a section that was created
in Asia-Pacific before the formation of
Region 10, namely, Japan (Tokyo) starting in 1955. New Zealand and Pakistan
followed in 1968, with India forming in
1969. Initially, Region 10 covered other

areas, including a large part of Africa,
but in 1981, those areas of Africa became a part of Region 8.
It has been a great pleasure for me
to represent this wide and enduring region before the PES Governing Board
since 2017. I had been involved with
PES for many years before this appointment, and my focus in this role
has been on addressing the question of
what can be done to serve PES members in this new capacity.
In PES, Chapters are at the core of
serving members and the wider PES
community. An active Chapter is an
enabling element in offering programs,
activities, professional networking
opportunities, special events, workshops, webinars, and conferences to
support local members in achieving
their personal and professional goals.
My focus has been on supporting existing PES Chapters and developing
future ones in Region 10. Because of
the strong leadership in our Chapters,
we have achieved continued growth in
PES membership. Our Chapter leaders
support local members and demonstrate the benefits of PES membership
through high-quality technical and
professional activities.
PES is growing in Asia-Pacific with
new Chapters in the Philippines and
in several cities in China. Some new
Chapters in China are in the process
of forming. During the last two years,
PES has also formed the PES China
and PES India Councils.
PES councils facilitate the activities
of members and coordinate the work of
march/april 2021

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2021

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