Awards

Every year, the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Power and Energy Society presents the following awards to recognize the outstanding achievements and efforts of our member:

  • Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) – This award is presented annually to an individual to recognize outstanding technical, professional and society contributions on behalf of the power engineer profession.
  • Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) – This award is presented annually to an recognize an engineer 35 years of age or under “for outstanding contributions in the leadership of technical society activities including local and/or transnational PES and other technical societies, leadership in community and humanitarian activities, and evidence of technical competence through significant engineering achievements.”
  • Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) – This award is presented annually to an individual to recognize a PES volunteer for outstanding engagement in support of PES Boston Chapter programs.

The winners were announced and recognized at the IEEE PES Boston Chapter DLP speaker event held on October 19, 2021.

Current and Previous OEA, OYEA, and OVA Award Winners:

2022 Winners

Rashaan Keeton

OUTSTANDING YOUNG ENGINEER AWARD (OYEA)

Rashaan Keeton was awarded the Outstanding Young Engineer Award in 2022 for his work to progress energy efficiency and for helping the Power Engineering industry find ways to engage with underserved communities in Boston. He serves as the lead project manager for the City of Boston Carbon Neutrality program.

Ledum Nordee

OUTSTANDING ENGINEER AWARD (OEA)

Ledum Nordee was awarded the Outstanding Engineer Award in 2022 for his significant efforts in championing diversity and inclusion in the Power Engineering field both in the local community and globally. He was recognized for his work on the DoE’s Better Building Accelerator and he also leads H.E.R.E., a grassroots initiative focused on environmental justice in Hyde Park.

2020 Winners

Goodarz Ghanavati

OUTSTANDING ENGINEER AWARD (OEA)

The Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Goodarz Ghanavati, for his significant contributions to the first FERC 1000 competitive project in New England, the first grid forming inverter project in New England, and the large scale PSCAD study of inverter-based technologies including DER and offshore wind for Eversource.

Emma Burke

OUTSTANDING YOUNG ENGINEER AWARD (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Emma Burke, for her significant contributions to the local community representing the power engineering profession, chairing the Global Youth Engineering Climate Conference and demonstrating technical and leadership skillsets in delivering her projects for National Grid

Likhit Mahadevaswamy

OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER AWARD (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Likhit Mahadevaswamy, for his extensive efforts in advertising all PES Boston events, upkeeping our website, and other valuable Webmaster duties in 2020.

2019 Winners

Vipul Bhagat

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Vipul Bhagat, for his leadership and significant contributions to the local community representing the power engineering profession.

Seyed Arash Nezam Sarmadi

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Seyed Arash Nezam Sarmadi, for outstanding transmission planning engineering efforts in 2019 in the Greater Boston area.

Risa (Qirollari) Karanxha

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Risa (Qirollari) Karanxha, for extensive and valuable efforts in organizing and coordinating the PES Boston technical meetings in 2019.

2018 Winners

Dr. Mufeed Mah’d

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Dr. Mufeed Mah’d, for his leadership and dedicated support of Power Engineering Education in the Greater Boston Area.

Adam Houghton

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Adam Houghton, for outstanding engineering achievements in distributed generation planning and interconnection within the New England Area.

Ami Vyas

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Ami Vyas, for extensive and valuable efforts in organizing and coordinating the PES Boston educational courses in 2018.

2017 Winners

Dr. Lisa Shatz

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Dr. Lisa Shatz, for dedicated support of Power Engineering Education at in the Boston Area and for her leadership of the 2017 PES Student Congress.

Abhinav Rawat

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Abhinav Rawat, for outstanding engineering achievements in power system reliability improvements within the New England Area.

Amsa Mangga

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Amsa Mangga, for extensive and valuable efforts as the Chair of the Boston PES Technical Meetings Committee.

2016 Winners

Babak Enayati

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Babak Enayati, for dedicated leadership as the Chair of the PES Boston Chapter, Chair of the PES General Meeting Boston Local Organizing Committee, and Vice Chair of the IEEE 1547 Working Group.

Jessica T. Farrell

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Jessica T. Farrell, for outstanding engineering activities in power system reliability improvements within the New England area.

Souresh Mukherjee

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Souresh Mukherjee, for extensive and valuable efforts as the Chair of the IEEE PES Boston Chapter Education Committee.

2015 Winners

Michelle Ward Michelle

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Michelle Ward Michelle has worked at Doble Engineering Company for 12 years. As a Senior Client Service Engineer at Doble, she provides analytical support and training to over twenty customers in New England and Canada – while also supporting the continued development of Doble’s diagnostic software and Expert Systems. Michelle is Secretary of Doble’s Bushings, Insulators, and Instrument Transformers Committee. She received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and is a member of IEEE Power Engineering Society. She has authored and co-authored multiple papers for Doble and NETA magazine; including: Power Factor and Temperature Correction for Transformers Filled with Ester Fluids, Transformer Exciting Current Testing Detects a Major Core Failure, Understanding C2 in Condenser Bushings, Discussion of Mike Wolf’s Paper – 50 MVA Transformer Failure, Understanding Insulation Test Results on Transformers with a Grounded Electrostatic Shield.

Michelle is a valued member of the Doble team and an asset to the power industry as a whole

Matt Robinson

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Matt Robinson.

Matt Robinson, PE is a Senior Engineer for 3C Electrical Company, specializing in power system analysis and design. His experience includes lead electrical design of multi-disciplinary construction projects, project management, and distributed energy facility design. Matt’s expertise in the power industry includes experience with advanced power system analysis including short circuit, load flow, protective device coordination, arc flash hazard analysis, harmonic load flow, motor starting and system modeling. Matt also has experience with the design of relaying and protection systems, emergency generation and uninterruptible power systems, and code/regulatory compliance. Matt received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and his Master of Science in Power Engineering from Northeastern University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts. He is also an active member of IEEE Power Engineering Society and an Adjunct Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Erica Salk

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Erica Salk.

Erica Salk has been a volunteer with the IEEE Boston chapter for the past year. She worked with members of the LOC for the IEEE PES GM 2016, organizing and contributing to the Technical Tours and the Companion Lounge Activities. Erica has been an employee for National Grid for the past three years, working in the Protection Engineering New England Department. She graduated with a BSEE from Trinity College (CT) and a MSEE from Brown University and is a Professional Engineer in the state of Rhode Island.

2014 Winners

Susan Soergel

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Susan Soergel for inspiring leadership and invaluable guidance in achieving outstanding chapter performance, and the initiation of student chapters in Boston area.

Susan obtained her B.A. degree from Mount Union College, B.S. & M.S. from the Tulane University, M.B.A from Babson College.

Susan is a lead engineer in substation technical group at Eversource Energy. She chaired the IEEE PES Boston Chapter from 2012-2015. Boston Chapter received outstanding chapter award, Large Chapter Award and also Won the PES Website contest during her time as chapter chair. Susan played a prominent role in initiating new PES student chapters under Boston Chapter.

Congratulations, Susan, for doing your part to help PES Boston Chapter excel.

Betty M. Grabauskas

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Betty M. Grabauskas for outstanding and engaging contributions to the mission of the IEEE PES Boston Chapter Executive Committee, particularly its social aspects.

Betty obtained her B.S. degree from Northeastern University and is currently working at Eversource Energy as an Engineer in the System Performance and Reliability Group.

Betty has been an active member of IEEE PES and PES Boston Chapter for many years. Her support for executing the mission of PES Boston Chapter is invaluable.

Congratulations, Betty, for Inspiring the young Engineers.

Subhadarshi Sarkar

Outstanding Volunteer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Volunteer Award (OVA) was awarded to Subhadarshi Sarkar for outstanding , enthusiastic and engaging contributions to the mission of IEEE PES Boston Chapter Technical Meetings Committee”

Subhadarshi obtained his B.S. degree from Bengal Engineering and Science University, India, Ph.D. degrees from the IOWA State University.

Subhadarshi is currently working as a Transmission Planning Engineer at National Grid.

Congratulations, Subhadarshi, for doing your part in successfully organizing the PES Boston Chapter Technical Meetings during 2014.

2013 Winners

Dr. Ali Abur

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

This year, the Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) was awarded to Dr. Ali Abur for outstanding contributions in the area of power engineering education.

Prof. Abur obtained his B.S. degree from Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi, Turkey in 1979, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ohio State University in 1981 and 1985, respectively. He was a faculty member at Texas A&M University until November 2005, when he joined the faculty of Northeastern University as a Professor and Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Dr. Abur has been an advisor to 19 PhD’s, 3 current PhD students, and several masters students. Of the 19 PhD students, four of them have accepted teaching positions in the field of power engineering, and the remainder continue to make significant contributions in the industry.He also actively engaged undergraduate students in his research projects through the National Science Foundation Research for Undergraduate programs. Some of these students remained and obtained their M.S. degrees with him as a result of the inspiration during their undergraduate studies.
Congratulations, Dr Abur, for doing your part to keep the pipeline full of highly qualified power engineers.

Chiranjeevi “Bala” Kotharu

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA) was awarded to Chiranjeevi “Bala” Kotharu for promoting the mission of the PES though formation of the UMass Lowell Student Chapter and dedicated service to the Boston Chapter.

Bala received his bachelors degree at JNT University in India, having been named the “Best Electrical Engineering Student in the Class of 2012″. He graduated from UMass Lowell this past spring with an MS in Electrical Engineering, concentrating in Power. Bala has also completed several relevant internships that provided him a hands-on opportunity to learn about wind turbines, generators, motors, converters, and various other key elements in the power system. He is currently working as a co-op at Northeast Utilities.

Bala is receiving this award not only to acknowledge his academic success, but to also recognize his contributions to the PES, both as a webmaster and volunteer at the Boston Chapter, and the Chair at the newly formed UMass Lowell Student Chapter.

Congratulations, Bala, keep up the good work!

2012 Winners

Bryan Gwyn

Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA)

The Boston PES proudly presented this award to Bryan for his leadership in a very successful rejuvenation of the Boston PES over the past few years.

Bryan Gwyn graduated from the City University of London, UK with a B.S. and PhD in Electronic Engineering. He is currently the Senior Director, Protection & Control Asset Management at Quanta Technology. Bryan has over 30 years of experience in the electric power industry, and held multiple leadership positions at National Grid prior to joining Quanta. He is past Chair of the Boston PES Chapter, which received the 2010 Outstanding Chapter Award under his guidance. Bryan is a member of several Industry Committees including NERC, CIGRE, and IEEE PES. He is a chair of NPCC (Task Force on System Protection), and has published over twenty papers.

Liuxi “Calvin” Zhang

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (OYEA)

The IEEE Boston Power and Energy Society has bestowed the 2012 Outstanding Young Engineer Award upon Liuxi “Calvin” Zhang to recognize his potential to become a distinguished leader and outstanding contributor.

In 2011, Calvin was the driving force behind the formation of the Northeastern University’s IEEE PES Student Chapter. He obtained the support of the Boston PES Chapter and Dr. Abur to get the student branch officially recognized by the University, helped to form the new executive committee, and assisted the fledgling student chapter in program planning, fund raising and event organization. One of the most successful events was a joint technical meeting on Energy Policy with the PES Boston Chapter and IEEE Boston GOLD. This meeting was carefully organized, well-attended, and featured a pre-eminent expert in the field. Calvin received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with a concentration in Power Systems.

He recently received his PhD from Northeastern University under the direction of Ali Abur, and is currently employed at Nexant in San Francisco.