Dr Don Tan

Under Don’s leadership, the IEEE Fellow Committee has planned a full implementation of the BoD
approved improvements, particularly specific measures for industry member engagement, particularly on standards
development. The IEEE fellow grade is a prestigious recognition by the Institute to a single individual for his or
her technical accomplishments, impacting society at large. It commands global acclaim and is a prestigious honor
eagerly pursued by individuals worldwide. How do you answer the question then: Am I qualified to be considered
for an IEEE fellow, particularly, as a member from industry? What is the best way to prepare a nomination
package? And how re your nomination going to be evaluated? This talk by Dr. Tan will provide a unique
perspective from an IEEE Fellow Committee Immediate Past Chair's viewpoint. It aims to demystify the fellow
nomination and evaluation process. He will discuss, with industry member focus, on recent fellow statistics,
nomination package preparation, contribution category selection, and qualification characteristics matrix (e.g.,
selection criteria) details. A few samples from past successful nominations will be presented and discussed as well.

Biography:

Dr. Tan has served as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power
Conversion, Program Manager, Department Manager, and Center Director in a US
Fortune 500 corporation. Don earned his PhD from Caltech and is an IEEE fellow.
Unusually prolific as a visionary technical leader in ultra-efficient power conversion
and electronic energy systems, he has pioneered breakthrough innovations with
numerous high-impact industry firsts and record performances that received
commendations from the highest level of US Government. He has developed
hundreds of designs and thousands of hardware units deployed for space
applications without a single on-orbit failure. His suite of world-class electronics
performed flawlessly on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), located one
million miles away, achieving world-record-breaking performances.

He is currently the President of IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, Chair of IEEE Fellow Advisory and
Oversight Subcommittee, and Vice Chair of IEEE Industry Engagement Committee. Among numerous others,
Don has served as Division II Director, IEEE Board of Directors; IEEE Fellow Committee Chair, IEEE
PELS/PES eGrid Steering Committee Chair, PELS Long Range Planning Committee Chair, Nomination
Committee Chair, PELS President, Editor-in-Chief (Founding) for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in
Power Electronics, APEC (the fourth largest event in IEEE) General Chair, PELS Vice President-Operations, Guest
Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Fellow
Committee, PELS Vice President-Meetings, IEEE Chair for IEEE/Google Little Box Challenge (awarded $1M
cash prize), and IEEE/DoD Working Group Chair, developed IEEE/ANSI standards 1515/1573. Don has
delivered 80+ keynotes/invited global presentations. He has received more than $30M external customer funding
for research and technology development. He also serves on many national and international award, review and
selection committees.