COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has honored an electrical engineering professor in Texas A&M University’s Dwight Look College of Engineering. B. Don Russell, holder of the J.W. Runyon Jr. ’35 Professorship in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the Meritorious Service Award of the IEEE’s Power Engineering Society. The award recognizes Russell’s contributions to the PES and power engineering over the past 30 years. Russell has directed the Texas Engineering Experiment Station’s Power Systems Automation Laboratory for more than 25 years. He holds numerous patents for power system protection and control systems, including an array of computer-controlled technology that automatically monitors the power system and notifies operators when system components are on the verge of failure. The automated monitoring system is currently being tested on 11 electric power systems in the United States and Canada. Russell has held virtually every position at every level of the PES, said PES executive director Bob Dent. Russell was the first engineering educator in 25 years to serve as PES president, and his 16-year tenure on the society’s governing board is the longest anyone has served in this capacity. He also has represented PES on the IEEE governing board. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the National Society of Professional Engineers. An expert in electric power system automation and control, Russell served on a blue-ribbon panel that investigated a widespread power outage in the western United States in 2002 and is a member of the National Research Council committee studying the vulnerability of the power system to terrorist attacks.
