Marian P. Kazmierkowski
Biography
With a career dedicated to improving the performance and availability of modern electric drives, Marian P. Kazmierkowski’s pioneering innovations to processing and controlling the flow of electric energy using power electronic converters have impacted applications ranging from industrial machines to transportation systems to renewable energy sources. Kazmierkowski developed the first speed sensorless vector control system for high-power current-source inverter-fed induction motor drives. He also invented current control methods for transistor voltage source inverters with reduced switching frequency that have been used in a commercial series of transistor pulse-width-modulation (PWM) inverter-fed alternating current (ac) servo drive systems manufactured in Poland. His digital-signal-processing-based sensorless control system has improved the performance of induction motors used for drives in trams, trolleys, and subways, permitting a wide range of speed and torque adjustments while enabling full utilization of the direct current voltage supply. The work done by Kazmierkowski and his team has had important implications for renewable energy applications. He has created methods for ac sensorless direct power control of three-phase grid connected PWM converters based on the concept of "virtual flux," which have been used for active and reactive power estimation. He has also developed power electronics grid interfaces for Europe’s Wave Dragon offshore ocean-wave renewable energy converter. Controllers based on his theories can also be found in photovoltaic systems and wind farm converters. In 2003 Kazmierkowski founded the Centre of Excellence in Power Electronics and Intelligent Control for Energy Conservation at the Warsaw University of Technology, which has become an internationally recognized leader of power electronics research and teaching.
An IEEE Life Fellow and Full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Kazmierkowski is a professor with the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
