Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Thomas Overbye holder of the Erle Nye ’59 Chair Professorship for Engineering Excellence in the College of Engineering. Effective January 1, 2020, this endowed professorship appointment is a recognition of his exceptional record as a researcher and educator.
Overbye is the director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Smart Grid Center, TEES Eminent professor, and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Overbye is an expert in power system computational algorithms, operations, control, visualization, and electric grid impacts of geomagnetic disturbances research.
He received his BSEE (’83), MSEE (’88) and Ph.D. (’91) all from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a former Fox Family Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a wealth of industry experience, the original developer of the PowerWorld software and co-founder of PowerWorld Corporation. Prior to PowerWorld, he worked at the Madison Gas and Electric Company (’83-’91). In addition, he was one of the principal DOE investigators following the August 14, 2003, U.S. blackouts.