Scientific Advisory Board
The Center's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is comprised of outside experts who are selected by, and serve collectively as a board to advise, the ERC Leadership Team. The SAB meets as a group with the CURENT at least once a year and once each year with the NSF SVT at the annual site visit. The SAB provides general advice to CURENT Leadership team and provides feedback on information and ideas presented at their meetings by CURENT senior staff.
Please click on each person's section to view additional information.
David Bertagnolli is a principal engineer with ISO-New England, the Independent System Operator for the New England bulk electric power system. He supports the System Operations department in all matters relating to the reliable operation of the power system, specializing in HVDC interconnections and integration of new technologies.
Mr. Bertagnolli joined the New England Power Exchange (NEPEX), predecessor of ISO-New England, in 1985. Prior to joining NEPEX, he was a project engineer with the Consolidated Edison Company of New York and a planning engineer with the American Electric Power Company. Mr. Bertagnolli’s career in the electric power industry began during college as a general laborer at the underground coal mine in Hillsboro, Illinois, which supplied a 1200 MW electric power plant adjacent to the mine.
Mr. Bertagnolli holds a Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and a Masters degree from Columbia University. He is registered as a Professional Engineer in the State of Connecticut and a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Mr. Bertagnolli lives with his wife in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts.
Terry Boston is President and Chief Executive Officer of PJM Interconnection. He also serves as chairman of two groups, the North American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI), and the North American Transmission Forum. After the August 2003 Northeast/Midwest blackout, Boston was one of eight industry experts selected to direct the NERC investigation.
Mr. Boston was Executive Vice President of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) power systems operations before joining PJM. In the 35 years he worked for TVA, he directed power iterations, pricing contracts, electric system reliability, and divisions in transmission. He served on the NERC Board/Stakeholders Committee for three years. During that time he was elected to the NERC Members Representative Committee. He presently serves as a U.S. Vice President of the International Council of Large Electric System (CIGRE) and Vice President of the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions.
Mr. Boston received his B.Sc.in engineering from Tennessee Technological University and his M.Sc.in engineering administration from the University of Tennessee.
Gerald "Jerry" Thomas Heydt is from Las Vegas, NV. He holds a BEEE degree from the Cooper Union in New York and MSEE and PhD. degrees from Purdue University. He spent approximately 25 years as a faculty member at Purdue, and in 1994, he took the position of site director of the NSF and industrially supported Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSerc) at ASU. He has industrial experience with the Commonwealth Edison Company in Chicago, E.G. & G. in Mercury, NV, and with the United Nations Development Program. In 1990, he served as the program manager of the National Science Foundation program in power systems engineering.
Dr. Heydt is the author of two books in the area of power engineering. Professor Heydt is a Regents’ Professor and Professor of Advanced Technology at ASU; he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Life Fellow of the IEEE. He is the recipient of the Edison Electric Institute Power Engineering Educator Award, 1989; IEEE Power Engineering Society Power Engineering Educator of the Year, 1995; and the IEEE Kaufmann Award, 2010.
Dr. Heydt’s research interests are in electric power engineering with a focus on electric power quality, distribution engineering, transmission engineering, computer applications in power engineering, power engineering education, power system sensors and instrumentation.
Dr. Hingorani retired from EPRI in 1995 as Vice President of Electrical Systems. He now works as a consultant specializing in the application of power electronics in power systems. Before joining EPRI, Dr. Hingorani worked six years at Bonneville Power Administration. His responsibilities included commissioning of the Pacific DC Intertie and Series Capacitor compensation for AC Interties.
Dr. Hingorani’s many awards include the IEEE Power and Energy Society’s Uno Lamm Medal for outstanding contributions in High Voltage Direct Current Technology (1985), the 1995 IEEE Lamme Gold Medal for leadership and pioneering contributions to the transmission and distribution of electric power, and the Franklin Institute’s Bower Medal and Prize for Science in 1996. He served as Chairman of CIGRE Study Committee 14: DC Links and Power Electronics from 1988-1996, and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1998. He has written over 150 papers and is a co-author of two books, one on HVDC power transmission and the other on Flexible AC Power Transmission.
Dr. Hingorani received his B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Baroda University, India, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Tamer Basar - Bio coming soon.
Dr. Sauer is the Grainger Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois. He is also a cofounder of both the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) and PowerWorld Corporation.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Sauer was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2003. His many honors and recognition include the Alumni Achievement Award, University of Missouri-Rolla, 2006; Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award, Purdue University, 2004; IEEE Power engineering Society Prize Paper Award, 1999; and Grainger Chair Professorship, 1988 through present.
He received his B.S. from the University of Missouri at Rolla, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University.
James Lyons - bio is coming
Greg Henrich is the Vice President of Transmission Operations at TVA and is accountable for “Keeping the Lights On” for the 10 million people of the Tennessee Valley. He is currently leading a grid modernization effort to prepare TVA for the grid of tomorrow. He has been a member of the NERC Operating Committee, North American Transmission Forum, and an EPRI advisor as a representative for TVA.
While at TVA, Greg served as a leader setting direction for the twenty year asset strategy, planning the transmission system, overseeing transmission maintenance, developing telecommunication planning and maintenance strategy, and as a NERC certified system operator.
Mr. Henrich received his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
Jay Giri is an Independent Consultant with GGM Consulting - a sole proprietorship. He is the former Director of GE Grid Software Solutions and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Washington.
In 1978, Jay and 11 other engineers co-founded ESCA in Bellevue, WA. Over time, ESCA became Alstom Grid and eventually GE Grid Solutions in 2015.
Jay created the original software for the ESCA automatic generation control (AGC) and the dispatcher training simulator (DTS). Today this AGC controls over 50% of North American generation and in many other countries, and the DTS is one of the predominant simulators used worldwide.
B.Tech – IIT Madras (Siemens gold medalist). PhD – Clarkson University, NY. IEEE Fellow 2002. IEEE Power & Energy Society Governing Board 2011-2016. Member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences 2015. Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2017: “for contributions to utility control center technologies to enhance grid situational awareness and reliability.”
Areas of Expertise:
- Real-time Grid Management
- Utility control centers
- Energy Management Systems software
- Automatic Generation Control
- Power System Simulators
- State estimation, Contingency Analysis
- Real-time transmission network applications
- Synchrophasors for grid management
- Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) analytics for grid management
- Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS)
- Smart Grid applications
Wanda Reder - Bio coming soon.
Mr. Cummings retired from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in April 2020 after over 23 years of service. Most recently, he had been the NERC Senior Director of Engineering and Reliability Initiatives.
Mr. Cummings joined NERC in 1996 and has extensive experience in the industry in system planning, operations engineering, and wide-area planning. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Power System Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is an IEEE Senior Member.
He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CURENT (Center for Ultra-wide Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks), a National Science Foundation and Department of Energy Engineering Research Center.
He is also a member of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Electricity Advisory Committee, and its Energy Storage and Smart Grid Subcommittees.
His geographically diverse experience includes Central Vermont Public Service Corporation in System Planning (generation and transmission), Public Service Company of New Mexico in Operations Engineering and Wide-area Planning, and the East Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement (ECAR) regional office of NERC as the Manager of Transmission Services.
He was a principal investigator of the 2003 Northeast Blackout and the more recent Arizona-Southern California Outage of September 8, 2011, leading multiple event analysis teams in the sequence of events development, modeling and studies (powerflow and dynamics analysis), and transmission/generation performance areas. He directed the NERC Event Analysis program for five years, leading or working on 12 major system disturbance analyses.
Mr. Cummings is the “father” of power interchange transaction “tagging” and the Interchange Distribution Calculator for the Eastern Interconnection, which is known as the Enhanced Curtailment Calculator in the Western Electricity Coordination Council.
