Michel Poloujadoff
- Birthdate
- 1932/04/02
- Death date
- 2021/12/13
- Associated organizations
- Institute Polytechnique in Grenoble
- Fields of study
- Power
- Awards
- IEEE Lamme Medal, IEEE Nikola Tesla Award
Biography
Michel Poloujadoff was born on April 2, 1932, near Paris, France. He received the Ingénieur Diplômé degree from Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité in Paris, and the Master of Sciences degree from Harvard University. After completion of his military service, he joined the Institute Polytechnique in Grenoble where he was a professor for more than twenty-five years.
During the academic year 1983-84, he was Distinguished Hooker visiting Professor at McMaster University (Ontario, Canada). In 1985, he joined Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris where he was full professor. He also taught electrical power engineering at Ecole Central de Paris, and was an Adjunct Professor at McMaster University.
Both the teaching and research activity of Dr. Poloujadoff have been mainly devoted to electrical machines, power electronics, and electrical lines.
Dr. Poloujadoff extensively contributed to the analysis ofinduction machines. He developed modern approaches to the modeling of squirrel cages, including the influence of harmonic fields and interbar currents. He was among the first investigators (1965) interested in the numerical solution of electro-magnetic field equations; later, he defined the basis of the first entirely three dimensional analysis of large transformers. In 1963, he started an extensive research program on linear induction motors, together with many associates. He gave new models, optimization methods, and wrote a book (in English, translated into Chinese) where he systematically compared the results of most of the analytical works published in the open literature.
In his later career, Dr. Poloujadoff was interested in two other subjects. First, the practical application of Floquet's theorem, which is related to periodic coefficient differential equations, such as electric machine equations. Second, the theory of optimization of electrical machines. Dr. Poloujadoff held four patents, and authored five books and over 140 technical papers. He was a doctor honoris causa of the University of Liege (1983) and of the Technical University of Budapest (1989). He was the recipient of a number of awards, including: a Westinghouse Certificate of Appreciation (1984); the Saulces de Freycinet Award from Academie des Sciences de Paris (1987), a Silver Medal from the University of Aquila, Italy (1988); the IEEE Nikola Tesla Award (1991), the latter accompanied by a gold medal from the Yugoslav Union of Electric Power Industry and a gold medal from the Yugoslav Union of Nikola Tesla Societies. He was the recipient of the 1994 IEEE Lamme Medal. He was a Fellow of the IEEE and of the New York Academy of Sciences. He was a Membre Emerite of the Societe des Electriciens et Electroniciens, France.
Dr. Poloujadoff was married to Jacqueline Suatton, and they have two daughters, Muriel and Marie-Pierre, and two grandsons, Romain and Julien. His personal outside interests include travel, skiing and photography.
Dr. Poloujadoff died on December 13, 2021.
