Marcelo Simoes

Dr. Simões work has been internationally recognized, with highly cited papers and books. He has been conducting cooperation with several institutions in several countries, serving as advisor for students and research programs. He worked as a visiting professor with UTBM – University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard, and ENS - l'École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, in France, supervised an international power quality laboratory in Brazil at São Paulo State University – UNESP, served as technical advisor for Universidad APEC in the República Dominicana. He published several books in English, in application of induction generators for renewable energy systems (CRC Press), integration of alternative sources of energy (Wiley/IEEE), modeling power electronics and energy systems (IEEE/Wiley), instrumentation for smart-grid (CRC Press), power electronics for integration of renewable energy systems with Springer-Verlag, published the only book available in Portuguese language about fuzzy logic modeling and control, and published "Artificial Intelligence for Smarter Power Systems" with IET(UK) in 2021.

Dr. Simões was IEEE senior member from 1998 to 2016, and he became IEEE Fellow in 2016. He has served IEEE in various capacities. He was IEEE PELS Educational Chairman, IEEE PELS Intersociety Liaison and Associate-Editor for Energy Conversion, as well as Editor for Intelligent Systems of IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, and Associate-Editor for Power Electronics in Drives of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. He was Transactions Paper Review Chair for IAS/IACC and vice-chair of IEEE IAS/MSDAD. Dr. Simões organized several conferences and technical sessions for IEEE, he was the Program Chair for IEEE PESC 2005, in the Steering and Organization Committee of the IEEE International Future Energy Challenge, the organizer of the 1st PEEW’05 - Power Electronics Education Workshop. He organized the IEEE GreenTech 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Simões coordinated PELS Chapter activities in Denver, he is the founder of IEEE Denver Chapter of the Power Electronics Society as well as the founder of the IEEE IES Denver Chapter, and served as Chapter Chair. He was the chair for the IEEE IES Smart-Grid Committee. He is IEEE IES AdCom Member-at-Large for a three-year term Jan//2019 to Dec//2021, a member of IES Awards & Honors Committee from 2019 to 2021, served as co-EiC for the IEEE Transactions on IES, organized the IEEE GreenTech 2021 and served as Technical Program Chair of IECON 2021.

In August 1991, Simões was admitted as a Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, supported by a Brazilian scholarship from CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento e Pesquisa), with a leave of absence from EPUSP. He was a graduate student in the Electrical Engineering Department of UTK, working under the advice of Prof. Bimal K. Bose, from 1991 to 1995. Simões conducted research at the facilities of EPRI/PEAC (Power Electronics Applications Center) where Prof. Bimal K. Bose had his research program. Simões studied all graduate courses available in the UTK graduate program in power electronics, power systems, control systems, and artificial intelligence, mainly learning fuzzy logic and neural networks, in order to apply into his Ph.D. dissertation. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1995, Simões returned to Brazil to teach at the Mechatronics Department of University of São Paulo. Simões was promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor, after he obtained his Livre-Docência Diploma in 1998 (similar to a Doctor of Science degree). Simões decided to immigrate and continue his career in the USA. He moved to Lakewood, Colorado, in order to accept a faculty position with the Colorado School of Mines in April 2000.

From 1986 to 1989, Simões worked for FDTE, at the same time leading technical research with three other partners who together started a company, Antares Eletrônica. Simões completed his M.Sc. degree under the advice of professor Moacyr Martucci Jr. During his master's degree, Simões started to heavily use computer-based design, initially with MicroCap for PC's, applying Pascal and C languages with compilers made for PC's, then also adopting Matlab in 1988 when it became available for the IBM PC 286 with a co-processor 287. Simões studied most of papers in modeling and simulation of dc/dc converters, based on R. D. Middlebrook and Slobodan Ćuk work. Simões joined EPUSP in 1989 as an instructor in the newly formed Mechatronics group inside the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and finished his master's degree in 1990. After meeting Prof. Ivo Barbi in 1989, during an event organized at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, the II SEP–Seminário de Eletrônica de Potência, Prof. Barbi motivated Simões to study Prof. Bimal Kumar Bose's papers. Simões then realized that power electronics was a bigger picture. Simões invited Prof. B.K. Bose to come to Brazil in 1990 to give a 3-day mini-course, and about 40 people attended this mini-course, from local schools in São Paulo, senior engineers from industry, several faculty members from other schools and other states, the meeting was a success, and Simões became very enthusiastic about joining the research group of Prof. Bose.

Simões received a B.Sc. degree from University of São Paulo, Brazil, an M.Sc. degree from University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a Ph.D. degree from The University of Tennessee, US in 1985, 1990 and 1995 respectively. He received his D.Sc. degree (Livre-Docência) from the University of São Paulo in 1998. Dr. Simões was a Fulbright Fellow for AY 2014–2015, in the Aalborg University, Institute of Energy Technology (Denmark). He joined Colorado School of Mines in 2000; during his tenure at Mines he applied several intelligent based control for advancing high power electronics applications for distributed energy systems and smart-grid technology. He was a recipient of the NSF - Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2002, one of the most prestigious award for new faculty members supporting activities of young teacher-scholars. He served as the director of the Center for Advanced Control of Energy and Power Systems – ACEPS, and the Colorado Electric Power Research Consortium – CEPRC at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Simões was teaching and conducting research of fuzzy logic, neural networks, bayesian networks, and in multi-agent systems for power electronics, drives and machines control, building an academic framework for advancing the integration of users with the distribution grid in applications defined as "smart-grid technology."

Simões was enrolled in an evening Catholic high school from 1978 to 1980, "Liceu Coração de Jesus", where he learned electronics as part of a technician degree. At that time, there was a job market for electronic technicians in Brazil, but he wanted to study further, and become an engineer. Therefore, in 1980, Simões took the entrance exams (FUVEST) for the University of São Paulo (USP) and was admitted as a student in "Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (EPUSP)". He completed his B.Sc. degree in 1985. In 1982 he was admitted to the Electrical Engineering Department of EPUSP and started an internship at FDTE - Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Tecnológico da Engenharia. From 1984 to 1985, he focused his expertise in telecommunications, antennas, high frequency, analog, and digital circuits design. His Senior Design in 1985 was a modem with analog and digital circuits implemented for interfacing an 8085 microprocessor, operating on a regular telephone connection. Such a system was made before the age of computers connected on telephone lines via modems. During his four years internship for FDTE, he was learning with senior engineers how to design DC-DC converters and off-line switching mode power supplies, using Phillips manuals for TV flyback circuits and National Instruments handbooks. Those power converters were built and implemented in railroad automation (FEPASA), as well as in the São Paulo Metro subway system. In 1985 Simões graduated from EPUSP and worked as an engineer for a few years with FDTE. He was inspired by several faculty from EPUSP, for example, Prof. Luiz de Queiroz Orsini [pt] who taught him modern computer-based electrical and electronics circuits analysis (that time with mainframes, and later on MAC's and PC's), José Roberto Cardoso who taught electrical machines and energy conversion. Simões also learned a lot from Prof. Edson Benedicto Ramos Féris and Prof. Guido Stolfi techniques for analog high-frequency circuit designer. During the Senior year (1985) Simões attended a course from Prof. Waldir Pó on introduction to Power Electronics, where the principles of utilizing thyristors, diodes, and transistors, to control electrical circuits for energy conversion was a transformation in how Simões wanted to further his career, giving him a strong motivation to learn and understand power electronics for controlling machines, ac-dc, dc-ac, and dc-dc power conversion.

Simões was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1963, to José L.G. Simões and Cecília A.B.G. Simões, with a sister, Maysa A.G. Simões. When he was 11 years old, he had a strong motivation and decided to become an electrical engineer when his cousin, Hélio Adauto de Paula, showed him vacuum tube radios, transistorized audio amplifiers, and took Simões to visit his work as an electrical machine designer in Equacional, a motor manufacturing company in the city of São Paulo.