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Faculty Profile - Ronald Gordon Harley

Duke Power Company Distinguished Professor; Regents' Professor
Electrical Energy

Phone: 404.894.1876
Fax: 404.894.4641
Office: VL E176

Biography

Dr. Harley grew up in South Africa where he attended the University of Pretoria and completed the BScEng and MScEng degrees in 1960 and 1965 respectively. He worked for the South African Railways and the University of Pretoria for a period of time, and then continued his graduate studies at Imperial College in London where he was awarded a PhD from the University of London in 1969.

He was appointed to the Chair of Electrical Machines and Power Systems at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, in 1971. In 1983 he became the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and in 1995 the Deputy Dean of Engineering at the University of Natal. He was a visiting professor to Iowa State University, to Clemson University and to Georgia Institute of Technology in 1975, 1985 and 1994 respectively. He came to Georgia Tech in February 1999 as the Duke Power Company Distinguished Professor. Dr. Harley was appointed as a Regents' Professor by Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson in August 2009.

He has published more than 220 papers in his field, is the co-author of a historical text book on Electrical Machines, supervised the research of 78 graduate students, and has received numerous awards and distinctions from professional societies. His hobbies include the guitar and woodworking.

Selected Publications, Patents

Research Interests
  • Power system stability and control, including Flexible AC Systems (FACTS)devices
  • Power electronics, motor drives and electric vehicles
  • Neural networks applied to power electronics and electrical machines
Distinctions
  • Fellow of the IEEE
  • Fellow of the British IEE
  • Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers, and Fellow of the Royal Society in South Africa
  • Member of the Academy of Science in South Africa
  • Elected Vice-President (Operations) of the IEEE Power Electronics Society in January 2003
  • Elected as one of six Distinguished Lecturers of the IEEE Industry Applications Society for the period 2000-2001
  • Vice-Chair of IEEE Industry Applications Society's Distinguished Lectures and Regional Speakers Program Committee since January 2000, and Chair of this committee since January 2003
  • Invited member of a 6-person panel who reviewed Advances and Trends in Power Electronics and Drives in the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society's 25th Annual Conference (IECON99) in San Jose, Nov 1999. Presented the section on Artificial Intelligence Techniques in the Control of Power Electronics and Motor Drives.
  • 1999 Best Paper Award by the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks. In 2001 again received a Best Paper award at the same conference.
  • General Co-Chair of the 2003 IEEE Symposium on Diagnostics in Electric Machines and Drives (SDEMPED), to be held in Atlanta

Last revised on July 25, 2006.