• Office Address: Min H. Kao Building, Room 519
• Phone: 865-974-2146
• Fax: 865-974-5483
• E-mail: fred.wang@utk.edu

Education

• Ph.D. from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1990
• M.S. from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1985
• B.S. from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, 1982

Dr. Wang holds the Condra Chair of Excellence in Power Electronics and is a Professor in Electrical Engineering at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also has a joint appointment with Oak Ridge National Lab. He is a founding member and the Technical Director of the NSF-DOE Engineering Research Center CURENT. He is conducting research on: design, modeling, control, and integration of advanced power electronics converters; motor drives; wide bandgap device characterization, modeling, packaging, control, and application; power electronics application to transportation, renewable energy and utility power systems. Dr. Wang has authored and coauthored over 500 refereed publications, one book, and five book chapters. He has 20 awarded and pending US/international patents. He is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors.

At UTK, he has led or participated in more than 45 projects, totaling more than $65M, with personal share more than $18M. He has advised 13 Ph.D. and 8 M.S. students to completion. Has also supervised more than a dozen research faculty and post-doc researchers, and hosted more than 35 visiting students and faculty.

Dr. Wang received his B.S.E.E. from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China in 1982. In 1985 and 1990, he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively, in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, California. He worked as a research scientist at USC’s electric power lab from 1990 to 1992. His study and research at USC included power system transients and insulation coordination, power equipment diagnosis, and electromagnetic field effects and shielding.

Dr. Wang joined GE Power Systems Engineering in Schenectady, New York as an Application Engineer in 1992. From 1992-1994, he was involved in numerous projects including TCSC and other FACTS applications, SMES, HVDC, railway electrification, steel mill VAR and harmonic compensation. After a short stint as a marketing engineer in China for GE Power Systems, Dr. Wang became a senior development engineer at GE Drive Systems, Salem, VA in 1994. From 1994-2000, he participated and made key contributions in the development of GE’s cycloconverter main drive, and Innovation Series medium voltage drives – the world’s first three-level NPC mega-watt medium voltage PWM drives based on HVIGBT and IGCT. He was a main developer of the synchronous machine drive control algorithm. He developed the grid-interface control, robust modulation and neutral-point control, motor shaft voltage and bearing current mitigation, and converter protection schemes for the three-level PWM drives. In 2000, he joined GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, New York as a program manager, responsible for establishing the Electrical Systems Technology Program in Shanghai, China.

Dr. Wang worked at the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), Virginia Tech from 2001 to 2009, first as a research associate professor and became an associate professor in 2004. From 2003 to 2009, he also served as the CPES Technical Director. At CPES, Dr. Wang’s research focused on high power electronic converters and systems for industrial motor drives, more electric airplanes, all electric ships, oil and gas, and renewable and distributed energy systems. He led or participated in more than 30 projects totaling $11M, with personal share more than $5M. He advised and co-advised 10 Ph.D. and 8 MS students to completion and hosted 6 visiting faculty and students.

Dr. Wang actively participates in IEEE activities and is a member of Power Electronics, Power and Energy, Industry Applications and Industrial Electronics Societies. He is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. He participated and led in developing three IEEE Standards on power electronics systems. He has received eight prize paper awards from IEEE IAS. He was the recipient of the 2018 IEEE IAS Gerald Kliman Innovator Award. He also received Dushman award in 1998, the highest award for best team technical work in GE. He is a three-time recipient of TCE Faculty Research Achievement Awards. He was the recipient of the 2019 EECS Gonzales Family Research Award.

• Power Electronics
• Power Systems
• Motor Drives