Research Bio

Robert Pilawa-Podgurski is Professor and Director of the Berkeley Power and Energy Center. He performs research in the area of power electronics, and is widely recognized expert in high density, high efficiency power converter design, with applications in renewable energy, electric vehicles, energy harvesting, CMOS power management, electric aircraft, and data center power delivery.  Dr. Pilawa-Podgurski received the Chorafas Award for outstanding MIT EECS Master’s thesis, the Google Faculty Research Award in 2013, and the 2014 Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, given annually to one individual for outstanding contributions to the field of power electronics before the age of 35. In 2015, he received the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the UIUC Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016, the UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award in 2017, and the UIUC ECE Ronald W. Pratt Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. He was the 2018 recipient of the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Award given for outstanding contributions to teaching unusually early in ones career. In 2023, he received the UC Berkeley EECS department Electrical Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award. He is co-author of fifteen IEEE prize papers, and is a fellow of IEEE.

Research Expertise and Interest

power electronics, energy systems, renewable energy, photovoltaics, electric vehicles