Professor Akagi attends IEEE Honors Ceremony

The IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association with approximately 430,000 members, holds a ceremony each year to honor the annual recipients of the 16 IEEE Medals. The Medal in Power Engineering, which has been awarded since 2008, recognizes "outstanding contributions to the technology associated with the generation, transmission, distribution, application, and utilization of electric power for the betterment of society." Akagi, the first Japanese citizen to receive the award, was selected by the IEEE "for pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of power conversion systems and their applications."

In his thank-you speech during the ceremony, viewable on the IEEE.tv website (from 1:31:24 to 1:35:35), the professor said "this prestigious medal encourages me to do further research on power electronics and power engineering although I have done it for 45 years. It would be a wonderful, challenging, exciting, but endless research journey."

I began my research on power conversion systems as a 4th-year undergraduate student in April 1973, so I have been focusing on this work for over 45 years. It brings me great joy to receive the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering while being a member of Tokyo Tech. I would like to thank my professors and fellow labmates from my student days, my mentors and colleagues during my time as a faculty member, and the graduate students who worked with me throughout my time as a researcher.