Hirofumi Akagi is a Professor in the department of electrical and electronic engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interest includes power conversion systems and its applications to industry, transportation, and utility. He has authored and coauthored some 120 IEEE Transactions papers and two invited papers published in Proceedings of the IEEE in 2001 and 2005. He was elected as an IEEE Fellow in 1996, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronics and Industry Applications Societies for 1998-1999. He received six IEEE Transactions prize paper awards, and 15 IEEE Industry Applications Society Committee prize paper awards. He is the recipient of the 2001 IEEE Power Electronics William E. Newell Award, the 2004 IEEE Industry Applications Society Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2008 IEEE Richard H. Kaufmann Technical Field Award, and the 2012 IEEE Power & Energy Society Nari Hingorani Custom Power Award. Dr. Akagi served as the President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society for 2007-2008. Since January 2015, he has been serving as the IEEE Division II Director. Edson Hirokazu Watanabe is a Professor at COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he teaches Power Electronics. His main fields of interests are converters analysis, modeling and design, active filters and FACTS technologies. Dr. Watanabe has more than 50 journal papers and more than 200 conference papers. He is a member of the IEE-Japan, The Brazilian Society for Automatic Control, The Brazilian Power Electronics Society, CIGRE and Power Engineering, Industry Applications and Power Electronics Societies of IEEE. In 2005, he was admitted to the National Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil. In 2013, he received the IEEE Power & Energy Society Nari Hingorani FACTS Award and became member of the National (Brazil) Academy of Engineering and in 2015 he was elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Mauricio Aredes received the B.Sc. degree from UFF - Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro State in 1984, the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from UFRJ - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1991, and the Dr.-Ing. degree (summa cum laude) from Technische Universität Berlin in 1996. In 1997, he became an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he teaches Power Electronics. His main research area includes HVDC and FACTS systems, active filters, Custom Power, Renewable Energy Systems, and Power Quality Issues.
