Keynote Speakers

Professor Zhu is a Fellow of various prestigious professional bodies including Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), National Academy of Inventors (USA), IEEE (USA), IET (UK), Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE), and China Electrotechnical Society (CES). He received numerous international awards, such as 2024 Global Energy Prize, 2021 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award, and 2019 IEEE Industry Applications Society Outstanding Achievement Award, as well as 42 Best Paper Awards including 8 IEEE Transactions / IET Proceedings Best Journal Paper Awards.

Professor Zhu obtained his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science degrees from Zhejiang University, China in 1982 and 1984 respectively, and Doctor of Philosophy degree from The University of Sheffield (UoS), U.K. in 1991, all in Electrical Engineering. Professor Zhu started his academic career in Zhejiang University as Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer from 1984 to 1988.  Subsequently, he worked at UoS for 38 years from 1988 to 2025, and from 2000 to 2025, he was Professor of Electrical Machines and Control Systems in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. Besides, from 2008 to 2025, he was Head of Electrical Machines and Drives Research Group in UoS, which is a world leading research group in the field of electrical machines, power electronics, control and energy conversion and storage systems, particularly well-known for its research and development on permanent magnet machines and systems. Since November 2025, he has been Chair Professor of Electrical Machines and Control Systems in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Professor Zhu’s research interests focus design and control of permanent magnet machines and drives for applications ranging from electrified transportations (electric vehicles, fast trains, electric aircrafts) through wind power generation to domestic appliances, industrial drives, and automation components and systems etc., which have been commercially exploited extensively by many global leading industries based in the UK, Germany, Denmark, France, Japan, USA, and China etc., including Siemens, Midea, Toyota, Nissan, Valeo, Rolls-Royce, and CRRC etc. He is the founding directors of four industrial research centers, including Sheffield Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Research Center and Midea Shanghai Electric Machines and Control Systems Research Center.

Professor Zhu has >200 granted and filed invention patents and published 8 monographic books and 5 edited books, more than 1500 journal and conference papers with citation of more than 60,000 and h-index of 124 (Google Scholars, by January 2026). More than 600 of his papers have been published in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Proceedings.

Akshay Rathore is a Professor and Director of Power and Energy Research Area in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on power electronics and control of electric motor drives. He is an IEEE Fellow and a recipient of several prestigious awards, such as the IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, the Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award, the IEEE David Irwin Early Career Award, the IEEE Bimal Bose Award for Industrial Electronics Applications in Energy Systems, the Nagamori Award, and the distinguished alumnus award (young achiever) from IIT (BHU) Varanasi, India.

Prof. Rathore has contributed to above 300 papers on soft-switching current-fed DC/DC converters, multilevel inverters, and DCM rectifiers, including about 110 IEEE Transactions. He edited a book on advanced concepts and technologies for electric transportation, published by CRC Press in 2022. He has delivered over 200 invited talks, keynotes, and tutorials at several events across the globe. Presently, he is the Chai rof the IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award Committee, Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and is serving on the committees of the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, IEEE Nikola Tesla Award and IEEE Fellow Committee. He is a member of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Executive Board and IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) AdCom.

Ayman M. El-Refaie received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 2002, and 2005 respectively. Between 2005 and 2016 he has been a principal engineer and a project leader at the Electrical Machines and Drives Lab at General Electric Global Research Center. His interests include electrical machines and drives. Since January 2017 he joined Marquette University as the Werner Endowed Chair for Energy Sustainability. He has over 260 journal and conference publications. He has 50 issued US patents. He is a fellow of the IEEE, IET and National Academy of Inventors.

At GE, he worked on several projects that involve the development of advanced electrical machines for various applications including, aerospace, traction, wind, and water desalination. He was the chair for the IEEE IAS Transportation Systems committee and an associate editor for the Electric Machines committee. He was a technical program chair for the IEEE 2011 Energy Conversion Conference and Exposition (ECCE). He was the general chair for ECCE 2014 and 2015 ECCE steering committee chair. He was the general chair of IEMDC 2019. He was the IEEE IAS Industrial Power Conversion Systems Department. He was the IAS Publications Department Chair He is currently serving as IAS president . He is a member of Sigma Xi He received several prestigious awards including the IEEE IAS Industrial Power Conversion Systems Department Gerald Kliman Innovator Award, the 2022 ICEM Arthur Ellison Achievement Award, The PES Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award and the PELS Electrical Machines, Drives and Related Automation Technical Achievement Award. He is the recipient of four paper awards.