Principal Investigator: Prof. Mona Ghassemi

Since 2025, Mona Ghassemi has been a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas). She joined UT Dallas in 2022 as an Associate Professor and Chairholder of the Texas Instruments Early Career Award.  

Prior to this, she served as an Assistant Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech (2017–2022), where in 2021 she achieved the rare distinction of being simultaneously honored with both titles of Steven O. Lane Junior Faculty Fellow and College of Engineering (COE) Faculty Fellow. 

In 2020, Dr. Ghassemi achieved a rare distinction by receiving both the NSF CAREER Award ($500,000) and the Department of Defense (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program Award ($450,000) in the same year—becoming only the second faculty member in her department to do so. She is also the fourth in department history to receive two prestigious early-career awards over the course of her career.  [VTNews-NSF CAREER] [VTNews-AFOSR YIP]. 

In 2021, she further distinguished herself by receiving the highly prestigious, competitive Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Program Award ($750,000), making her the only faculty member at Virginia Tech to have earned early-career awards from three major U.S. federal agencies—NSF, DOD, and DOE. Nationwide, only a handful of professors at U.S. universities have achieved the rare distinction of receiving three or more such career awards.

Some of her past and current leadership roles include: 

• Vice President – Administrative, IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), 2026

• Vice President (Technical) of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), 2024 and 2025. 

• Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Search Committee, The University of Texas at Dallas, 2024-2025

• A Thrust Leader for the “Energy Science and Technology” Research Thrust, goal: hiring 25 open-rank new faculty members in five research thrusts and six cross-cutting technologies, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Texas at Dallas, 2023-Present

• A member of the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Texas at Dallas, 2023-Present 

• A member of the Academic Senate, The University of Texas at Dallas, from 6/1/2023 to 5/31/2024, and from 1/6/2024 to 5/31/2025 

• At-Large Member, DEIS Administrative Committee (2020–2023; re-elected for 2023–2025)

• DEIS Representative, IEEE-USA Committees on Transportation and Aerospace Policy (CTAP) and R&D Policy

• Corresponding Member, IEEE PES Conference Publications Committee

• Active Contributor to multiple CIGRE working groups and IEEE Task Forces, and DEIS Technical Committee member on Transportation Electrification

• Former Member, DEIS Nominations and Appointments Committee

• Member, DEIS and PES Education Committees

She has been a Senior Member of IEEE since 2016 and a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) since 2015.

Prof. Ghassemi serves as Associate Editor for several prominent journals, including:

• IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, 2021–present

• Editorial Board, IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, 2023-present

• IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2020–present

• IET High Voltage, 2017–present

• Power Electronic Devices and Components, Elsevier, 2021–present

• International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, 2017–present

She is also a Guest Editor for Energies and Aerospace, and Associate Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. In 2020, she received the Contribution Award from the journal High Voltage.

Her scholarly output includes:

• Over 250 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications

• Four book chapters

• Four Best Paper Awards

Dr. Ghassemi has been recognized among the World’s Top 2% of Scientists in 2021 [Link], 2022 [Link], 2023, and 2024 [Link].

Her research spans a broad range of cutting-edge topics, including

• Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation

• High Voltage Engineering

• Advanced Electrical Insulation Design and Packaging of (Ultra)Wide-Bandgap-Based Power Electronics Modules and Power Electronics Building Blocks for High-Voltage, High-Power-Density Applications

• Power Systems

• Plasma Science

To learn more about Dr. Ghassemi’s work, visit her profiles on Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCID, and the UTD ECE Department website.