Dr. Yunwei (Ryan) Li is currently a University of Alberta Senior Engineering Research Chair and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Li received the Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Li was a Visiting Scholar with the Aalborg University, Denmark in 2005, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow atToronto Metropolitan University, Canada 2006 – 2007. In 2007, he also worked at Rockwell Automation Canada before joining University of Alberta. His research interests focus on power electronics and their applications in distributed energy Dresources, microgrids, renewable energy, transportation electrification, and electric motor drives. His research has produced more than 450 papers with over 24,000 citations. 

Dr. Li is currently the Vice President for Products of IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). He was the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Letters 2019-2023. Prior to that, he was Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. Dr. Li served as the general chair of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress of Exposition (ECCE) in 2020. Dr. Li received the Nagamori Foundation Award in 2022 and the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from IEEE PELS in 2013. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, and recognized as the Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.

Dr. Hao Liang is currently the Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Energy Systems and an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is affiliated with both the Energy Systems Research Group and Communications Research Group. Before joining the University of Alberta, he received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada, in 2013. From 2013 to 2014, he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Broadband Communications Research (BBCR) Lab and Electricity Market Simulation and Optimization Lab (EMSOL) at the University of Waterloo, where he had co-founded and coordinated a Smart Grid Research Group. 

Dr. Liang’s research is interdisciplinary in nature across the fields of smart grid, cyber-physical systems, AI and quantum computing for energy system applications. He is a co-recipient of the Outstanding Paper Award from IEEE CCECE’23, the 2018 IEEE Power & Energy Society Prize Paper Award, the Best Conference Papers on Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage, Microgrids, and Demand Response from IEEE PES GM’16, and the Best Student Paper Award from IEEE VTC Fall-2010.  

Dr. Farzam Nejabatkhah is an accomplished power systems engineer with extensive experience in distributed energy resource planning and technology. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tabriz, Iran, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta, Canada, in 2017. Following his Ph.D., he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and instructor at the University of Alberta, then joined CYME International T&D, EATON, in Montreal, and later taught at Polytechnique Montreal. Currently, he is the Lead Power Systems Engineer at Eversource Energy in Massachusetts.

Dr. Nejabatkhah specializes in planning, modeling, and analyzing distribution power systems, AC/DC microgrids, and power electronics converters, with a focus on smart grids, hybrid microgrids, renewable energy, and cyber-physical systems. He actively contributes to power systems standard societies, such as IEEE and IEC, and has authored over 50 industry reports, technical papers, and a book published by Wiley-IEEE. His work has resulted in around $3M in grant funding, underscoring his impact on both academia and industry. Renowned for his excellent communication skills, he has delivered numerous presentations and lectures and is passionate about leading cross-functional teams to develop innovative solutions for the energy sector.