Keynote & Award Speakers

Award Speakers

Prof. Dr. Rong Mingzhe

Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture: Economical HVDC interruption technology and equipment

Xi'an Jiaotong University, China

Rong Mingzhe is a professor and doctoral supervisor of Xi'an Jiaotong University. He is the chief scientist of National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), the principal investigator of National Natural Science Fund for Creative Research Groups, the Yangtze River Scholars Distinguished Professor of Ministry of Education of China, the winner of National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the principal investigator of innovative research team in university of Ministry of Education of China.

He is also the IET Fellow and Vice Chairman of IET Xi'an Branch. His research mainly focuses on high-voltage and large-capacity interruption technology, intelligent sensing and operation and maintenance of power equipment, and digital twin technology for power equipment. He has won one second prize of the National Technology Invention Award, three second prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and four first prizes at the provincial and ministerial level. He has been granted 15 US patents, 4 European patents, and over 100 Chinese invention patents. He has published 4 monographs and more than 400 papers on IOP, IEEE Trans, IET, IEICE, and Proceedings of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering and other journals.

Dr. Ran

Young Professional Achievement Award Lecture: Molecular Topology Engineered Polymer Dielectrics for High-Temperature Capacitive Energy Storage

State Key Laboratory of Power System Operation and Control, China

Dr. Ran received her B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Electrical Automation and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, China, in 2017 and 2022, respectively. From 2022 to 2026, she carried out her postdoctoral research at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. She is currently an associate research professor at the State Key Laboratory of Power System Operation and Control.

She was selected as the Zheng Yan Young Scholar of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. She has published over 50 academic papers in the field of high-voltage insulation, among which 27 are first-author or corresponding-author publications in journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, and IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation. She holds 11 authorized national invention patents as the first or second inventor, and has contributed 2 chapters to English monographs. She also serves as a peer reviewer for international journals such as IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, and High Voltage.

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Dr. Reimund Gerhard

Keynote Speech: Amber, Fulgurite, Clay, Nacre – Learning from Nature for Advanced HV Dielectrics

University of Potsdam, Germany

Reimund Gerhard was born in Heidelberg. He studied mathematics and physics at TU Darmstadt and obtained a Dr.-Ing. degree in 1984. Dr. Gerhard was project manager at HHI Berlin 1985-1994 and appointed university professor of applied condensed-matter physics at U Potsdam in 1994. From 2008 to 2012, he was dean of the Faculty of Science. In 1993 and 2012, he was elected Fellow of IEEE and APS, respectively. 2018-2019, Reimund served as President of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society. Research appointments took him to universities in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel and the U.S.A.

Prof. Dr. Jinliang He

Keynote Speech: The Development of Large-Capacity EHV/UHV DC Gas-insulated Transmission Lines

Tsinghua University, China

Prof. Jinliang He is a Chang Jiang Scholar Professor of China Education Ministry in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University, and the Chief Scientist of China State Key Lab of Power Systems. During Jan. 2014 to Jan. 2015, he is a visiting professor in Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. His research interest is in the field of advanced power transmission technology, including lightning and overvoltage protection and monitoring technology, gas-insulated transmission lines, and recyclable power cables. He is an IEEE Fellow, a CIGRE Fellow, and a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, Italy. He is also the Global Energy Prize Laureate, the recipient of the IEEE Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award, Richard R. Stoddard Award. He is the founding editor-in-chief of iEnergy, the associate Editor-in-chief of CSEE Journal of Power Electrical and Energy Engineering, the associate Editor-in-chief of High Voltage.

Prof. Dr. Davide Fabiani

Keynote Speech: Insulation Challenges in High-Frequency Power Electronics

University of Bologna, Italy

Prof. Davide Fabiani is an Associate Professor from 2014 (formerly assistant professor since 2005) at the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Information Engineering (DEI) 'G. Marconi ' of Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. On 31/03/2017 he got the abilitation to Full Professor in Power Systems Group (Electrical Technologies).

He is the Head of Laboratory of Innovative Materials for Electrical Systems (LIMES) at DEI.

He is a past President of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), having served from 2024 to 2025, and has been President of the AEIT Bologna Section since 2023.

His research interests deal with nanotechnology applied to electrical materials, in particular insulating materials for high voltage, and electrical diagnostic systems. He is author of about 230 publications in international journals and conference proceedings.

Prof. Dr. Pantelis Mikropoulos

Keynote Speech: Challenges and Advances in Outdoor Insulation for Medium Voltage Systems

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Prof. Pantelis N. Mikropoulos is a Professor of High Voltage Engineering at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Thessaloniki, Greece. He was born in Kavala, Greece, in 1967. He received the M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from AUTh in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He held postdoctoral positions at the University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K., and at AUTh. He was a senior engineer with Public Power Corporation S.A., Greece, and an Assistant Professor at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete.

In 2003, he joined AUTh, currently serving as the Head of School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since 2005 he has been the Director of the High Voltage Laboratory, teaching four undergraduate and two postgraduate courses in High Voltage Engineering. His research interests include the broad area of High Voltage Engineering with emphasis given to electrical discharges, dielectric strength of external insulation, lightning protection and earthing, insulation coordination for power systems, high voltage and high current measurement devices and techniques.

Prof. Dr. Ronald Plath

Keynote Speech: On-site testing of high-voltage cables – past and present practice, and future challenges

Technical University of Berlin, Germany

Ronald Plath was born in Berlin, Germany in 1962. He received his diploma and PhD in High Voltage (HV) Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany (TUB), in 1987 and 1994, respectively. From 1998 to 2013, he was a lecturer for HV testing and diagnosis at TUB.

From 1993 to 1997, he worked at CESI, Milan, Italy as a consulting engineer in the ﬁrst prequaliﬁcation (PQ) tests of AC 380 kV XLPE cables. From 1997 to 2007 he was head of the HV laboratories at IPH Berlin, Germany (now part of the CESI group). From 2007 to 2010, he was responsible for the development of monitoring systems for HV devices and systems at OMICRON Berlin. Since 2010, he has been managing director of HPS Berlin with a focus on consulting and on-site HV testing worldwide.

Since 2013, he has been a full professor of high voltage technology at TUB. His research interests include HV testing and diagnostics, especially partial discharge measurement and monitoring, HV cables, HVDC and power electronic insulation systems.

He is a member of IEEE, CIGRE and VDE (DKE K124, German mirror committee of IEC TC 42). He was German member of ETG Q2 Materials, Insulation Systems and Diagnostics and FNN project group "Deployment of 525 kV HVDC cables“, CIGRE WG B1.06, B1.28 and B1.38 and is member of CIGRE German SC B1 mirror committee, corresponding member of CIGRE WG D1.54, JWG D1/B3.7, D1.66 and convener of CIGRE WG D1.63. He is member of Jicable International Scientiﬁc & Technical Committee. In 2021, he became a member of the Scientiﬁc Advisory & Project Board (SABP) of 50Hertz, one of the four German TSOs.

Prof. Dr. Feipeng Wang

Keynote Speech: Sustainable Dielectric Fluids for High-Voltage Equipment: From Ester Liquids to Functionalized Liquid Insulation

Chongqing University, China

Dr. Feipeng Wang is a Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering at Chongqing University, China. He was a DFG Research Fellow in Germany from 2008 to 2009. His research interests include advanced electrical insulation materials, sustainable power equipment, and sensing technologies. He has led several major national research projects in China and more than ten key projects funded by major state-owned enterprises. Professor Wang has published over 200 papers and delivered 15 keynote and invited talks at international conferences. He is the recipient of multiple provincial and ministerial science and technology awards and has served in leadership roles within IEEE DEIS and related international conferences and standards activities.