Biography

Robert Pilawa-Podgurski is currently a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the founding director of the Berkeley Power and Energy Center (BPEC). Previously, he was an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his BS, MEng, and PhD degrees from MIT. He performs research in the area of power electronics. His research interests include renewable energy applications, electric vehicles, energy harvesting, CMOS power management, high density and high efficiency power converters, and advanced control of power converters. Dr. Pilawa-Podgurski received the Chorafas Award for outstanding MIT EECS Master’s thesis, the Google Faculty Research Award in 2013, and the 2014 Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, given annually to one individual for outstanding contributions to the field of power electronics before the age of 35. In 2015, he received the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the UIUC Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016, the UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award in 2017, and the UIUC ECE Ronald W. Pratt Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. He was the 2018 recipient of the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Award given for outstanding contributions to teaching unusually early in ones career. In 2023, he received the UC Berkeley EECS department Electrical Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award. He is co-author of sixteen IEEE prize papers, and is a fellow of IEEE.

Education

  • 2012, PhD, EECS, MIT
  • 2007, MEng, EECS, MIT
  • 2005, BS, Physics, MIT
  • 2005, BS, EECS, MIT

Selected Publications

Awards, Memberships and Fellowships