NEWS
Congratulations to Ning Yan Ph.D.
Sep 02, 2026
The Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) proudly congratulates Ning Yan on earning her Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her dissertation titled, Investigation of Compact Auxiliary Components for Medium-Voltage Converters with Enhanced Insulation and Wide-Bandgap Device Utilization, addresses critical challenges in medium-voltage power electronic systems and advances technologies that support improved reliability, insulation performance, and power density.
Working under the guidance of her advisor, Dong Dong, Ning focused her research on developing compact and reliable auxiliary power and protection hardware for medium-voltage converters. Her work explored three key areas: transformer-isolated auxiliary power supplies, capacitive-isolated auxiliary power supplies, and high-voltage super-cascode switching structures. Together, these innovations provide practical design methods and hardware demonstrations that can help enable the next generation of high-performance medium-voltage power converters.
Ning’s research combined analytical modeling, simulation, and extensive experimental validation to address real-world engineering challenges. The results offer valuable insights into electrical insulation, common-mode noise reduction, compact converter design, and reliable high-voltage switching using wide-bandgap semiconductor devices.
Following graduation, Ning Yan has accepted a position as a Senior Applications Engineer at Monolithic Power Systems (MPS).
Reflecting on her experience at CPES, Ning shared:
“At CPES, I learned that every successful prototype has a long history of unsuccessful prototypes that nobody talks about. Along the way, some of the best lessons came from the experiments that did not work the first time.”
The CPES community thanks Dr. Ning Yan for her many contributions to research and innovation and wishes her continued success in her professional career. Congratulations, Dr. Yan!
