Leon Tolbert

Chancellor’s Professor

Dr. Leon Tolbert is a founding member and Testbed Thrust Leader in CURENT and the Min H. Kao Professor and Chancellor’s Professor in UT’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. Dr. Tolbert is also an adjunct participant at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Tennessee and an IEEE Fellow.

He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering with highest honors in 1989, followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1991 and 1999, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1999, following an 8-year career at ORNL. He is also a participating faculty member of the Bredesen Center Energy Science and Engineering Ph.D. program.

He was the recipient of the 2001 IEEE Industry Applications Society Outstanding Young Member Award, the 2023 IEEE PELS Milan M. Jovanović Award for Power Electronics Emerging Technology, and 15 prize paper awards from the IEEE.

Dr. Tolbert’s areas of research interest include high efficiency electric power conversion for data centers, microgrids, application of WBG (SiC and GaN) power devices, multilevel converters, electric vehicles, renewable energy interfaces, and utility application of power electronics.

Contact Info

E-mail Address:
tolbert@utk.edu
Mailing Address:
520 Min H. Kao Building
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-2250
Telephone Numbers:
Office (voice): (865) 974-2881
Office (fax): (865) 974-5483