2008 EXPO Honorary Chair
Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III
Dr. Schweitzer was born in Evanston, Illinois, USA, in 1947. He received his Bachelor's degree and his Master's in electrical engineering from Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Washington State University, upon completion of his dissertation on digital protective relaying.
After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in 1968, Dr. Schweitzer worked as an electrical engineer with the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, MD for 5 years. He continued his research in digital protective relaying while serving on the electrical engineering faculties of Ohio University and Washington State University. The research covered both theoretical and practical aspects, and demonstrated the feasibility and practicality of digital techniques for protecting electric power apparatus and systems.
He also taught courses in electric power system analysis, electrical energy conversion, power system protection, electronics, and communications theory.
In 1982, Dr. Schweitzer founded Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, in Pullman, Washington, to develop and manufacture digital protective relays and related products and services. Today, SEL is an employee-owned company, which serves the electric power industry worldwide, and is certified to the international quality standard ISO-9001. SEL equipment is in service at voltages from 5 kV through 500 kV, to protect feeders, motors, transformers, capacitor banks, transmission lines, and other power apparatus.
Dr. Schweitzer is recognized as a pioneer in digital protection, and holds the grade of Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a title bestowed on less than one percent of IEEE members. The American Association of Engineering Societies presented him its National Engineering Award in 2001. In 2002 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is also the recipient of the Graduate Alumni Achievement Award from Washington State University and the Purdue University Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award. In September 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico, for his contribution to the development of electric power systems worldwide.
He has written dozens of technical papers in the areas of distance relay design, filtering for protective relays, protective relay reliability and testing, fault locating on overhead lines, induction motor protection, directional element design, dynamics of overcurrent elements, and the sensitivity of protective relays.
Dr. Schweitzer holds more than thirty patents pertaining to electric power system protection, metering, monitoring, and control.