Capabilities

Research Staff

The Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group (PEEMRG) consists of more than 35 staff members and collaborates with numerous researchers in industry and academia. Staff members hold advanced degrees in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, and physics. Most are active members of professional societies such as the IEEE, IEE, ASME, and SAE, and hold leadership positions in these organizations.

Since 1990, 42 patents have been granted with several more pending. Researchers have published more than 300 technical papers with more than 60 papers published in IEEE Transactions of the following societies: Power Electronics, Industry Applications, Energy Conversion, Power Delivery, Industrial Electronics, Instrumentation and Measurement, and Magnetics.

PEEMRG Staff

	Donald J. Adams Don is the director of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research staff is recognized world wide for their expertise in: (1) advanced inverters and adjustable speed drives; (2) power transmission and distribution research and development; (3) electric machines; and (4) power quality, efficiency, and power measurements. The Center's reputation is supported by patents, publications, and recognition by professional societies, academia, industry and DOE. Don has seven patents granted and has numerous publications. He is a registered professional engineer, member of IEEE, and is on the Governing Board of the NSF Center for Power Electronics Systems, which consists of five universities and over eighty industrial partners. Don has degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee.
	Curt W. Ayers Curt Ayers is a research engineer in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has worked at ORNL for 15 years in the areas of diagnostics and non-destructive examination methods. Presently he is involved in R&D work and machine design relating to applications of power electronics and advanced electric machine technologies to electric vehicles.
	Tim Burress Tim Burress began working with the Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the NTRC in June of 2004. He is currently working on benchmarking research and has worked with vector control of permanent magnet synchronous machines for traction drive applications. He received his BSEE at the University of Tennessee in December 2004 and a M.S. in electrical engineering at UT with a focus on control systems and power electronics.
	Steven Campbell Steven Campbell has been working as an Electromechanical Technician here in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group since June of 2004. He has received his Associates of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering Technology from Pellissippi State Technical Community College and is currently working on his Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
	Madhu Chinthavali Madhu Sudhan Chinthavali received his M.S. degree in electrical engineering at The University of Tennessee in December 2003. He received a B.E. degree in electrical engineering in 2000 from Bharathidasan University , India . He is presently a post-masters participant at the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group and is in the Power and Energy Systems Group of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
	Chester L. Coomer Chester Coomer is a technical staff member of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He graduated from Tennessee Institute of Electronics in 1971 and began work as an electrical and mechanical technician in centrifuge R&D at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He has also been involved with seismic testing of operating centrifuges, flywheel development and testing, and electric machine fabrication.
	Kathy Gambrell Kathy Gambrell is a staff member in the Power Electronics and Electrical Power Systems Research Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Kathy attended Tennessee Technological University and Roane State Community College and has over 25 years experience in project management and outreach. She serves as an interface with ORNL staff members, sponsors, universities, and private industries to fulfill project-related objectives. She also defines and implements project goals, commitments, and milestones; performs financial analyses; and monitors technical projects to ensure sponsor satisfaction. Before coming to the center, Kathy was involved in intelligent transportation systems outreach activities for the US Department of Transportation.
	John S. Hsu Dr. John Hsu is the lead scientist in electric machinery research for the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Bristol University, England. He has worked in electric machine research and development areas for Newman Industry, Emerson Electric Company, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. He served as head of the Rotating Machines and Power Electronics Program, Center for Energy Studies, the University of Texas at Austin for four years. Dr. Hsu is the author or co-author of over 100 technical papers and reports. He is involved with 31 patents in the design and control of electric machines, is a registered professional engineer, and is a fellow of IEE (IET).
	Mike Jenkins Mike Jenkins is a technical staff member of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has been a journeyman sheet metal worker and machinist for 28 years.
	Laura Marlino Laura Marlino is a research engineer in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group and the deputy director of the Power Electronics and Electrical Power Systems Research Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She received her BS in electronics engineering from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico and her MSEE from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her graduate thesis was on power electronics for low earth orbit satellites. During her engineering career she has been employed with Teledyne Camera Systems in California doing analog video design and Honeywell Aerospace and Marine in New Mexico as both a test and design engineer involved with cockpit displays and processors for military aircraft. She also has worked as an IC design engineer with ASIC International in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
	John W. McKeever Dr. John W. McKeever is a research scientist in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group. He received a B.S. in physics from the Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville . He has over 38 years of work experience in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, serving in both technical and project management capacities. From 1960 to 1985, he developed uranium enrichment processes at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Since 1985, he has been involved in technology transfer and program development as part of the Engineering Science and Technology Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has also been involved in management of advanced electric machine and machine drive projects for hybrid electric vehicles.
	Samuel C. Nelson Samuel Nelson is a research engineer in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 1970. He worked at General Electric Aerospace in Philadelphia, Pa. , and at ITT/North Electric (telecommunications) where his primary duties were reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) analysis. From 1976 to 1985, his primary duties were RAM assessments of uranium enrichment equipment at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Since joining ORNL in 1985, he has prepared RAM and/or safety assessments of DOD, Y-12 Plant, and power reactor equipment. At PEEMRG, the Automotive Electric Motor Drive task, a traction drive motor study, and evaluation of prototype hardware have been his primary responsibilities.
	Mitch Olszewski Mitch Olszewski is the director of the Power Electronics and Electrical Power System Research Center and a manager for the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Program. He has a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked at ORNL for 30 years in programs ranging from waster heat utilization to space power.
	Pam Olszewski Pam Olszewski is the secretary for the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group. She joined the Engineering and Technology Division in 1992 and in 1996 she transferred into her current position. She attended Pellissippi State Technical Community College.
	Pedro J. Otaduy Dr. Pedro J. Otaduy is a research scientist in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in power engineering from Basque University, Bilbao, Spain, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He has been a Fulbright student and an E. P. Wigner Fellow. He has worked for 20 years at ORNL in process simulation, diagnostics, supervisory control, and other innovative uses of computers. He developed the LAPUR code for BWR Stability analysis, and the ORMEL96 and IMPET codes for performance evaluation of induction motors with minimum intrusion. He presently is developing computer models of converters and motors for hybrid electric vehicles and advanced mobile military generator sets.
	George W. Ott, Jr. George W. Ott, Jr. is a technical staff member of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Laboratory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received an Associate of Science from Walters State Community College in 1975 and an Associate of Engineering from State Technical Institute of Knoxville in 1979. He began work at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in 1980 and has worked in the research, design, and development of instrumentation, drive and control systems for the Centrifuge Division and later the Engineering Science and Technology Division of ORNL. George has also taught several courses in electronic circuits.
	Burak Ozpineci Dr. Burak Ozpineci received a M.S. and Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee in electrical engineering in 1998 and 2002, respectively, and his B.S. degree from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He joined the Post-Masters Program with the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2001 and became a full time staff member at the PEEMRG in 2002. His research interests include inverters, silicon carbide based power devices, fuel cell utility interface, distributed energy resources. Burak also serves as the group leader for the Power and Energy Systems Group within the Energy and Transportation Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
	Matthew B. Scudiere Dr. Matthew Scudiere is the lead scientist in controls research for the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his B.S. and M.A. in physics from Kent State University and M.E. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia . He has worked as a research scientist, engineer, and inventor for most of his career in areas such as power electronics, weigh-in-motion systems, image and signal processing, and algorithm development; and has over 35 years experience in instrumentation design and controls. Dr. Scudiere holds five patents in the fields of digital control algorithms, weigh-in-motion systems, lasers, and power electronics.
	Larry E. Seiber Larry Seiber is a technical staff member of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He graduated from Roane State in 1974 with an Associate Degree in Electronics Technology. He developed machine drive and instrumentation technology while working in the Power Electronics group of the Centrifuge Division at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant from 1974 - 1985. In 1985, he joined the Y-12 Development Division where he provided mechanical and electrical design and Construction oversight support to the Continuous Automated Vault Inventory System program as well as technical support for the Local Area Network and several computer systems. He joined ORNL in 2000.
	Michael Starke Michael Starke is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee. He received his M.S. and B.S. also at the University of Tennessee and is working in the Power and Energy Systems Group of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interest include power systems and power electronics, and he is invesitigating the merrits of DC distribution.
	Bob Staunton Robert Staunton received a BS in ME and a BA from the University of Notre Dame in 1978. Since joining ORNL, he has investigated and reported on technical issues including: energy security for U.S. Army bases, peak load reduction, the changing electricity market, market study on microturbines, distributed energy resources, real time energy, and load as a reliability resource. He has also prepared case studies on energy efficiency upgrades in industry, prepared studies on electric motor and valve diagnostics, and led various equipment reliability studies.
	Gui-Jia Su Dr. Gui-Jai Su is a research scientist in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received the B.S. in electrical engineering from Wuhan University of Hydraulic and Electrical Engineering, China, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan. He has worked as a research associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology conducting research on high-speed motor drive applications and high frequency power distribution systems. He is a member of the IEEE.
	Lixin Tang Lixin Tang received the B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, in 1991 and 1994, and Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia in 2004, respectively. From April 1994 to August 1998, he was with the Beijing Institute of Mechanical Equipment, first as an assistant electrical engineer, then as an electrical engineer since 1996. He participated in several projects on static frequency converters. In August 1998, he joined GE Hangwei Medical Systems Co. Ltd., Beijing , China as an electrical engineer, where he was in charge of the design, quality control, and technical support of the x-ray generator (XG) subsystem of several CT scanners. He worked as a part-time teaching/research assistant in UNSW from 2000 to 2004, while he was studying for his Ph.D. He worked for Central Queensland University (CQU) as a post-doctoral research officer in Rockhampton , Australia from April 2004 to March 2005. He joined PEEMRG in April 2005. His current research interests are AC drives control and power electronics converters.
	Leon M. Tolbert Dr. Leon Tolbert is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee and an senior research engineer in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received the B.E.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and active member of the IEEE Industry Applications and Power Electronics Societies. He has worked at ORNL since 1991 on electrical distribution design, power quality, and power electronic inverters for motor drives and active filters.
	Cliff P. White Cliff White is a technical staff member of the Power Electronics and Electronic Machinery Research Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received an Associate of Science in electronic engineering technology from the State Technical Institute at Knoxville in 1979. He has worked at Texas Instruments in Johnson City, Tennessee, as a troubleshoot technician on their line of industrial controllers. In 1980, he began work at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He has been instrumental in the design and assembly of several prototype inverters for use in laboratory experiments or as part of industry-sponsored projects conducted at ORNL.
	Randy Wiles Randy has worked at TVA as a designer for the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, as well as a designer of robotic and remotely maintained hot cell equipment for Remotec in Oak Ridge. Randy received an Associate of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Pellissippi State in Knoxville . He joined ORNL in 1988 and the Nuclear Science and Technology Division. Responsibilities there were hot cell equipment design, as well as the design; fabrication, testing and QA qualification of curium recycle targets in support of the Heavy Element Research Program. Randy joined the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Group at the National Transportation Research Center where he is involved in R&D work, machine design and operational testing relating to applications of power electronics and advanced electric machine technologies to electric vehicles.

Students and Visiting Employees

Kirk Lowe
Kirk Lowe received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in December of 2004, and he now is an Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at UT. He has been with the group since January of 2004 as an undergraduate lab assistant and now as a graduate research assistant. His research interests include thermal and fluid systems with an emphasis in novel thermal management systems for power electronic devices.

Hui Zhang
Hui Zhang is a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at The University of Tennessee. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Zheijiang University , China , in 2000 and 2003, respectively. Her area of research interest is modeling of silicon carbide based power electronics circuits.