The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society (PES) recently announced the recipients of its 2026 Society-Level Awards. Professor Fangxing Li, an alumnus of the School of Electrical Engineering at Southeast University, was honored with the Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award. In his acceptance speech at the award ceremony held in Montreal, Professor Li expressed his sincere gratitude to his alma mater, Southeast University, and his Master’s advisor, Professor Yang Li.
Established in honor of Professor Roy Billinton, one of the founding pioneers of modern power system reliability theory, the Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award is one of the most prestigious annual honors presented by IEEE PES. The award citation recognizes Professor Li “for contributions to probabilistic methods in market simulation, grid reliability and resilience assessment.”
Professor Li was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province. After graduating from Tongcheng High School in 1990, he enrolled in the Power System and Automation major in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southeast University, now the School of Electrical Engineering. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1994 and master’s degree in 1997 from Southeast University, and earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in the United States in 2001.
From 2001 to 2005, Professor Li worked at ABB, where he served successively as a senior engineer and a principal engineer. He joined the University of Tennessee in 2005 and served as an assistant professor, tenured associate professor, and professor. In 2017, he was appointed the John W. Fisher Professor. Since 2024, he has served as Director of CURENT, the Center for Ultra-Wide-Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks, a National Science Foundation-supported national university research center in the field of power engineering.
Professor Li’s research focuses primarily on electricity markets, power system reliability and resilience, and artificial intelligence applications in power systems. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 2016 for his contributions to electricity markets. From 2020 to 2025, he served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy. He also served as Chair of the IEEE PES Power System Operation, Planning and Economics Committee from 2020 to 2021 and as President of the North American Chinese Power Professionals Association from 2013 to 2015.
Research led by Professor Li’s team received an R&D 100 Award in 2020. His group has also received eight best paper awards from academic journals and seven best paper awards from international conferences. In recent years, Professor Li has made significant contributions at the intersection of power grid resilience, climate change, and sustainable development. His team has published five papers within the Nature portfolio, and his work has attracted widespread attention both within and beyond the power and energy community.
In a recent interview with the School of Electrical Engineering, Professor Li fondly reflected on the seven years he spent studying and living at Southeast University from 1990 to 1997. He noted that the School’s rigorous and pragmatic academic culture, systematic professional training, and dedicated mentorship from distinguished faculty members laid a solid foundation for his academic research and professional development in the field of power systems. Professor Li emphasized that Southeast University not only equipped him with professional knowledge, but also instilled in him the courage to explore new frontiers and the determination to pursue excellence.
Related Link: IEEE PES Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award https://ieee-pes.org/about-pes/awards-scholarships/ieee-pes-roy-billinton-power-system-reliability-award/
Photo Source: IEEE PES website
