Professor Yilu Liu works on the forefront of smart-grid technologies as the UT/ORNL Governor’s Chair Professor for Power Grids. Still, she was surprised to learn that she won the 2020 IEEE Power & Energy Society Wanda Reder Pioneer in Power Award.
The research-focused Liu often defers nominations to younger research colleagues, so this award was a mystery at first. This recognition was fueled by Volunteer Spirit, it turned out.
“It took me a while to find out it was cooked up by a bunch of my former UT Knoxville students,” she said. “They never stopped contributing to our Vol family, from their research work when they were here to helping promote UT after they have left.”
The Pioneer in Power award was established to foster more diverse leadership by supporting career advancement, networking, and education of women in the electric power and energy industry. Liu was cited specifically for her innovative contributions and leadership in synchrophasor-based wide-area monitoring and control systems.
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