Engineering

Alumnus Sheldon Kennedy named IEEE Fellow

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sheldon Kennedy, a 1975 electrical engineering alumnus has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the organization’s highest honor.

The IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE board of directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of 1 percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

Kennedy, who has been the vice president of engineering at Niagara Transformer Corp. in Buffalo, New York, since 1988, was lauded for his leadership in the technology and standards for rectifier, inverter and harmonic-mitigating transformers.

He joined Niagara Transformer Corp. in 1985 as an engineering manager. Prior to that he was the chief engineer at R.E. Uptegraff in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and a part-time electrical engineering instructor at Penn State’s Fayette campus.

“My education at Penn State certainly was the basis for my career,” Kennedy said. “It was also good to be able to give back a little as a part-time instructor at the Fayette campus earlier in my career before I moved to New York.”

Prior to teaching at Penn State, Kennedy worked as a transmission substations engineer then as a rate engineer with Allegheny Power Corporation in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. In his co-op program at Penn State he worked for U.S. Steel in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and West Penn Power in Connellsville, Pennsylvania.

Over his career, Kennedy has served as a member or chair of several IEEE committees and working groups.

He has authored several IEEE Petroleum and Chemical Industry, IEEE Pulp and Paper Industry, and Doble Conference papers. He authored the Rectifier Transformer Chapter in the Chemical Rubber Company Press book, “Electric Power Transformer Engineering.”

Last Updated January 14, 2016

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