Scott Sudhoff, Michael and Katherine Birck Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs

Scott D. Sudhoff, Michael and Katherine Birck Distinguished Professor in Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the 2025 Nikola Tesla Award. The honor is a Technical Field Award given annually to an individual or team that has made an outstanding contribution to the generation or utilization of electric power. Sudhoff is being recognized “for contributions to the analysis and design of electric machinery and power electronic systems.”

Sudhoff is a Fellow of IEEE. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1988, 1989, and 1991, respectively. Sudhoff joined the faculty of Purdue ECE in 1997. His research interests include electric machinery, power electronics, marine and aerospace power systems, applied control, evolutionary computing, and genetic algorithms and their application to power electronic converters and electric machine design. Sudhoff has published over 200 papers in these areas, including six prize papers. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion and IEEE Power and Energy Technology System Journal.

"Purdue's emphasis on empowering students to create their own engineering tools, rather than just using them, is what drives the success and reputation of Purdue engineers," said Sudhoff. "I'm also extremely fortunate to have the best colleagues one could hope for. “

The IEEE Nikola Tesla Award was established in 1975 through an agreement between the IEEE Power Engineering Society and the IEEE Board of Directors. It is named in honor of Nikola Tesla, an electrical engineer, a distinguished Yugoslav-American inventor, and a pioneer in many fields, who is most renowned for the development of the coil that bears his name and the ac induction motor.