IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021 - 86

Member and Industry Profile
by Pierre Thollot
My Golden Journey as
a Professional Engineer
Sharing my decades of experience in power electronics and the industry
P
ower electronics I must
acknowledge has been a very
d ynamic and influencing
ingredient throughout the journey of
my professional and private life. It
may sound weird, but it is true. My
challenge now is to provide you
with the when, where, how, and why
that is true.
I t was Sunday aft ernoon, 7
December 1941 in the living room of
my mom and dad's house in Woodside
NY. I was listening to the news
on the radio and President Franklin
D. Roosevelt was informing the
nation of the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA. At the age
of 7, I was mystified how could a
piece of furniture plugged into the
wall be able to report and describe
what was happening thousands of
miles away.
By the time I was 16, I was removing
vacuum tubes from the radio,
testing them at the local drug store
and replacing the bad ones. Following
my graduation from high school, I
began night college, served two years
in the Korean war, discharged, and
continued in day college. I graduated
with a BSEE from CCNY in 1962.
Unknowingly, my introduction to
power electronics was taking a newly
available extra credit course with
focus on a new semiconduc t or
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2021.3099547
date of current version: 13 September 2021
device, the Transistor,
invented by Bell
Labs in 1947.
My first job was
with the National
Aeronaut ics and
Space Administration
(NASA) Lewis
Research Center in
Cleveland, Ohio. My
work at NASA focused
on researching
better ways to collect, save and
process electrical power for spacecrafts.
During one of my early annual
performance reviews, my supervisor
asked me if I was a member of the
IEEE. When I said no, he suggested I
look into it. Well, I did and joined the
IEEE in February 1975. My early involvement
in IEEE activities was limited
to attending power electronic
conferences. That led to my becoming
a member of the Power Electronic
Council. I quickly realized that the
connectivity with other engineers
and academic leaders in the field of
power electronics research was extremely
beneficial and a major contributing
factor in my NASA career
growth. From a junior engineer, I
went on to become a section leader,
and then the manager of a newly
formed power electric branch of the
Electric Power Division. I enjoyed my
job and would have retired there, but
as things turned out, I was requited
and offered a great job, the second
phase of my professional career,
86 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z September 2021
My work at NASA
focused on researching
better ways to collect,
save and process
electrical power for
spacecrafts.
work i ng for the
Sundstrand Corp, a
very large aero -
space electric power
corporat ion. I
was successful in
climbing the ladder
and retired 18 years
later as the director
of the Electric Research
Division. An
obverse question at
this point would be how can a BSEE
engineer climb the career ladder so
high so fast. The answer is " the connectivity
IEEE enabled me to utilize. "
Details of the how, when, and
where will be expanded in the paragraphs
below.
I would like to begin with my private
life. Yes, I have a family, wife
married 62 years, four children, ten
grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
As an example, one of the
benefits of my work was international
travel. It enabled me to bring along
my wife, and at times a child on a
business trip to Europe and Japan
because I had accumulated many airline
mileage credit points. Another
example, I would like to share with
you is the personal rewards. I've
enjoyed being active and involved
with the Center for Power Electronics
Systems (CPES), Virginia Tech.
My connectivity and exposure with
the research were very rewarding. To
be honest, I have to admit that my
busy professional life, my job and
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021

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