Fang Z. Peng received the B.S. degree from Wuhan University, China in 1983 and the Ph.D. Degrees from Nagaoka University of Technology (Nagaoka Tech), Japan in 1990. Dr. Peng is a scholar, inventor and engineer in high-voltage high-power (mega-watt or MW) power electronics. His research career consists of three periods: 1984-1994 at Nagaoka Tech, Toyo Electric Manufacturing Co., and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in Japan; 1994-2000 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) USA; and since 2000 with academia: at Michigan State University (MSU), Florida State University (FSU) and now the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). Dr. Peng's research area is power electronics, which is a key enabling technology to provide space electrical power in space engineering. For any space exploration mission, the most critical challenge for the power system is to have fail-safe power generation/source, delivery, and load/usage. Dr. Peng has invented the Z-source converters and Z-source control for power systems, which have inherent fail-safe and resilient features including automatic fault-current limiting and system re-startup. His research interest in space engineering to expand his fail-safe and resilient power electronics and power system controls for mission critical space power systems.
