Renowned scholar Dr. Thomas Overbye has joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University as part of the Governor’s University Research Initiative (GURI), which is aimed at bringing the best and brightest researchers in the world to Texas.
Overbye, a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Distinguished Research Professor, is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering. Prior to joining Texas A&M in January 2017, he was the Fox Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983, 1988 and 1991, respectively.
His research interests are in the domains of smart grid cybersecurity, renewable electric energy systems, power system visualization, power system analysis by computer methods, power system stability, and power systems operation and control. In the fall, he will begin teaching on topics related to power distribution and generation.
Before starting his academic career, Overbye was employed with Madison Gas and Electric Company from 1983-91. He is the original developer of PowerWorld Simulator, an innovative, widely-used software package for power system analysis and visualization, and a cofounder of PowerWorld Corporation. He is also the recipient of the Alexander Schwarzkopf Prize for Technological Innovation, a University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering Distinguished Achievement Award and the IEEE Power and Energy Society Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award.