The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society (PES) has announced the recipients of its 2025 PES Society-Level Awards. Among the honorees are Professor Daozhi Xia, Professor Xiaoping Zhang, and Professor Lingling Fan, all alumni of the School of Electrical Engineering at Southeast University.
Professor Daozhi Xia has been honored with the 2025 Gu Yuxiu Electrical Engineering Award in recognition of his "outstanding contributions and achievements in power system stability analysis and control methods, as well as harmonic power flow theory."
The Gu Yuxiu Electrical Engineering Award is the first international engineering prize established in China. It is highly trusted and acclaimed in the industry for its "high prestige" and "rarity." The award is presented annually to one expert who has made significant achievements in the field of electrical engineering and contributed substantially to the advancement of power technology.
Daozhi Xia was born in January 1934 in Taizhou, Jiangsu. He graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Nanjing Institute of Technology (now Southeast University) in 1953. His time as a student witnessed the establishment of both Nanjing Institute of Technology and its Department of Electrical Engineering following the nationwide restructuring of higher education institutions in 1952, making him a firsthand witness to the historical evolution of Southeast University’s electrical engineering discipline.
After graduation, Xia began teaching at Jiaotong University. In 1958, he relocated westward with the university and continued his teaching career at the School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. From September 1980, he spent two years as a visiting scholar at Purdue University in the United States under a state-sponsored program. He became a professor and doctoral supervisor in 1986 and served as the deputy head of the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the School of Electrical Engineering) and deputy director of the Institute of Electrical Technology from 1986 to 1993. He retired in 2005.
Professor Xia is a renowned expert in power system operation and control, as well as a pioneer in harmonic power flow analysis for power systems. He has achieved numerous important results in the analysis and control of low-frequency and sub-synchronous oscillations, transient stability, and voltage stability in power systems. He is a senior member of IEEE and has served as a member of the first, second, and third consulting groups for the National Key Basic Research and Development Program under the Ministry of Science and Technology. He was also a member of the second discipline review panel of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and served on the CIGRE Study Committee 38. He authored the monograph Harmonic Analysis and Filtering for High-Voltage Direct Current Transmission Systemsand served as the chief editor of the graduate textbook Power System Analysis (Part II)and the undergraduate textbook Power System Analysis. The graduate textbook was selected as one of the first national graduate textbooks, while the undergraduate textbook was included in the 10th, 11th, and 12th Five-Year Plans for national undergraduate education under the Ministry of Education.
Gate of Nanjing Institute of Technology
Power Engineering Building, Nanjing Institute of Technology
Group photo commemorating the 8th National Academic Annual Conference on Power System and Its Automation held at Southeast University
(Professor Daozhi Xia is the ninth from the right in the first row)
Professor Xiaoping Zhang has been awarded the IEEE PES Nari Hingorani FACTS Award. The award committee cited his "contributions to modelling and design of FACTS Controllers in AC and DC transmission systems."
Professor Xiaoping Zhang began his studies in the Power System and Its Automation program at Southeast University in 1984. After completing his undergraduate degree, he continued his graduate studies in the same field, earning his master's degree in 1990 and his doctorate in 1993. He currently serves as a Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Energy Research at the University of Birmingham in the UK, and is also among the first group of Foreign Fellows of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE Fellow). He was elected IEEE Fellow for his outstanding contributions to the modeling and control of DC transmission and flexible AC systems, and has also been conferred the title of IET Fellow. Professor Zhang previously served as Secretary of the IFAC Technical Committee on Power and Energy Systems Control and is now a Visiting Professor at Southeast University. From 2020 to 2023, he participated as an expert advisor in the evaluation of the UK government's offshore transmission network project. Currently, he also serves as a Senior Editor for the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energyand is an editorial board member for several international journals.
Professor Zhang's research covers global 100% renewable energy grids, energy communities, smart grids, power system planning and operation, real-time simulation of traditional HVDC/VSC-HVDC/FACTS systems, stability and control of new energy systems, electricity markets, and demand-side management. His published works include Flexible AC Transmission Systems: Modelling and Control(Springer, 1st edition 2006; 2nd edition 2012; Chinese edition 2015) and Electricity Market Reforms: Equilibrium Analysis of Electricity Markets(IEEE Press/Wiley, English edition 2010; Chinese edition 2016).
As the founder of the China-UK Smart Grid Forum, Professor Zhang has been a pioneering advocate internationally for concepts such as the "Global Power & Energy Internet," "Energy Community," and "Energy Quality," and actively promotes academic activities in these related fields.
Professor Lingling Fan has been awarded the IEEE PES Wanda Reder Pioneer in Power Award. The award committee recognized her "for leadership in technical innovations of power grid stability analysis and dedicated services to IEEE PES publications and education."
Professor Lingling Fan is an alumna of our university, entering in 1990. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1994 and her Master's degree in 1997, both from Southeast University. She later received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University, USA, in 2001. Since 2009, she has been with the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, USA, where she is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Previously, from 2001 to 2007, she worked as a Senior Engineer in the Transmission Asset Management Department at the Midwest ISO in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She served as an Assistant Professor at North Dakota State University, USA, from 2007 to 2009, and was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electrification Magazinefrom 2020 to 2024. She currently serves on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
Professor Fan's research primarily focuses on power system stability analysis and control, power system generation control, power system fault analysis, power system interconnections, and power electronics technology. She was honored with the title of IEEE Fellow for her outstanding contributions to the stability analysis and control of inverter-based grids.
Contribution: Wu Xi
Preliminary Review: Zhong Linlin
Final Review: Gu Wei
