Professor Gayadhar Panda earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Utkal University in 2007. He began his journey at NIT Meghalaya as an Associate Professor in 2013 and currently holds the esteemed position of Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya, India. Alongside his teaching responsibilities, he serves in various administrative capacities such as Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean (Faculty Welfare), Part-time CVO and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, in addition to undertaking other significant roles as Chairperson or Member of numerous National and Institutional Committees. Professor Panda has also served as Director(i/c) at NIT Meghalaya for six months.With over 25 years of combined teaching and research experience, Dr. Panda has established himself as a prolific and dynamic expert in his research domain. He boasts an impressive portfolio of more than 170 research papers published in esteemed peer-reviewed journals and conferences and has filed 5 patents. Under his expert guidance, 9 scholars have successfully obtained their Ph.D. degrees, while another 8 are currently engaged in their research under his mentorship. Dr. Panda's contributions to the field have earned him the prestigious Power Medal from IE (India), and best Research Award from NIT Meghalaya in the subsequent years 2016, 2021 and 2023. Dr. Panda was also listed within 2% scientist of the world by Stanford University in successive years 2021, 2022 and 2023. His expertise extends beyond academia as he has led numerous sponsored research projects and consultancy work focusing on renewable energy integration and power quality enhancement. He holds esteemed memberships in professional organizations including Senior Member of IEEE, Fellow of IE, and Life Member of ISTE. Dr. Panda serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Access, ITES, Wiley, and IJEEPS, De Gruyter, and various technical and steering committees for conferences. He is also renowned for organizing numerous technical events such as IEEE Conferences, Symposia, and National Workshops, and is frequently invited to deliver talks at national and international forums, further solidifying his stature as a distinguished academic and researcher. His current research interests include design, implementation, and operation of microgrids with renewables and electric vehicles interfaced through converters.Dr. Malabika Basu is currently working as a Senior lecturer in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, of Technological University Dublin (TUD), the first Technological University of Ireland, previously also well known as Dublin Institute of Technology. Her current research interests include grid integration of renewable energy sources, power quality conditioners, and power quality control and analysis; photovoltaics (PVs) and wind energy conversion; HVDC systems; smart grid; energy resilience and microgrids and interaction of electric vehicles (EV). She has supervised 11 PhDscholars till date, mentored several postdocs, and currently supervising 3 PhD. She also serves as the program chair of level 9 Taught Masters of Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems program since 2017, and caters for other teaching, administrative and professional roles nationally and internationally. Dr. Basu has an active teaching and research collaboration history across the globe spanning from Australia (UNSW), India (several Institutes), Europe (UK, Italy, Denmark, Cyprus, Portugal, Turkey), and USA and Canada. She also served as an Associate Editor in IEEE-Access till 2020 for about 2 years. With external and internal research funding Dr. Basu has led to the development of a world class Power Quality Laboratory in TUDublin. The European Commission invited her several times from 2009, for reviewing proposals under “Smart Energy Networks” and various Energy related calls. She is a fairly relaxed and reflective person, enjoys her role in her professional career, believes in holistic development and growth, rather than just professional career or academics, and takes immense pride, joy and interest in her students’ professional and personal development. Dr Basu completed her Bachelors and Masters of Electrical Engineering from IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology) Shibpur, West Bengal, and PhD from IIT Kanpur, in 1995, 1997 and 2003 respectively. She has been a lecturer in Jadavpur University from 2001-2003, and since then she has been in R&D and teaching in the current Institute of Ireland.Prof. Pierluigi Siano (M’09–SM'14) received the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information and electrical engineering from the University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He is Full Professor of Electrical Power Systems and Scientific Director of the Smart Grids and Smart Cities Laboratory with the Department of Management & Innovation Systems, University of Salerno.Since 2021 he has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg.His research activities are centered on demand response, energy management, the integration of distributed energy resources in smart grids, electricity markets, and planning and management of power systems. In these research fields, he has co-authored more than 700 articles including more than 410 international journals that received in Scopus more than 19200 citations with an H-index equal to 66. Since 2019 he has been awarded as a Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering by Web of Science Group. He has been the Chair of the IES TC on Smart Grids. Dr. Shaik Affijulla received the M.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India in 2011 and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong, India in 2018. Currently, he is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong, India. His current research interests include the cyber security of smart grids, big data analytics, phasor measurement units, wide area monitoring and protection, power system dynamics.
