Research profile
Through the last two decades, Prof. Marco Liserre, as a Professor and leader of technologic transfer initiatives in three different countries, Germany, Denmark, and Italy, has distinguished himself as a visionary and influential researcher showing power electronics capability not only in the technical field but also in a wider sense in society.
Modelling and Control of Power Converters Connected to the Electric Grid
Already 25 years ago, he started focusing during his doctoral studies on modeling and control of power electronics in emerging applications, like active front end, with studies on LCL-filter and resonances, and their passive and active damping (https://doi.org/10.1109/IAS.2001.955428), now a dominant topic with key senior advice by Prof. Frede Blaabjerg (https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2006.881997), and by Prof. Carlo Cecati (https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2003.816552). Already in 2002, he moved to the field of renewable energies, working together with Prof. Remus Teodorescu and later on with Prof. Pedro Rodriguez, with a focus on grid-interaction of power converters showing the importance of correct modeling of the electric grid for power electronics studies (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2005.861185) and harmonic control and synchronization of power converters based on second-order integrator (https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2007.899914, https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2010.2087293), nowadays standardly used in the industry. This intensive cooperative work led to numerous PhD Courses and invited lectures, resulting in a textbook now a standard in the field (Online ISBN: 9780470667057).
He later started to cooperate with Prof. Xiongfei Wang, developing Active Damper to control resonances in power systems (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2013.2278716), a PhD Student at Aalborg University, at the time he was a Professor in Aalborg. In recent years, he collaborated with Prof. Mario Paolone, leading to a new modeling approach for power converters in harmonic load flow (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2019.2925703, https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2021.3120108, https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2021.3120081), funded through participation in a DFG (German research foundation) Priority Program about Hybrid and Multimodal Grids in both phase 1 and phase 2. Within the industrial PhD of Dr. Roberto Rosso, he paid more attention to Power Synchronization and Grid Forming Converters, adopting new methodologies to study the power converter in the electric grid seen as complex systems characterized by variability, then using Montecarlo analysis (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2019.2905355) and mu-analysis (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2019.2896707), resulting in top-cited papers (https://doi.org/10.1109/OJIA.2021.3074028) and several patents.
Solid-State Transformer becoming a Smart Transformer
In the last 10 years, Prof. Marco Liserre demonstrated the transformation of Solid-State Transformers into Smart Transformers. This advancement was showcased in the European Excellence Project “HEART,” the first in Europe in the category of power electronics and power systems (https://doi.org/10.1109/MPEL.2017.2692381). These Smart Transformers offer services to the electric grid through hybrid and meshed grids, going beyond their "hardware" advantages in size and weight (https://doi.org/10.1109/MIE.2020.300535).
This significant work was conducted with the senior advice of Prof. Costas Vournas and the key contribution of Prof. Giovanni De Carne, his PhD Student (now Professor at KIT, Germany). Together, they introduced dynamical voltage control of distributed grids, demonstrating its capability to damp frequency transients and enable increased penetration of renewables (https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2016.2614846, https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2018.2888687, doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106836).
Prof. Liserre further collaborated with Prof. Rongwu Zhu (formerly Post-doc, now Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China) and Prof. Chandan Kumar (Von Humboldt fellow and now Professor at IIT, India), leading to their participation in the strategic governmental initiative Kopernicus “ENSURE.”
Modular and Multilevel Power Converters for hybrid and meshed grids
In the last 10 years, Prof. Marco Liserre focused on Solid-State Transformer and Protection for Electronic Grid Systems, emphasizing modular multilevel converters and isolated dc/dc converters with key contributions from Prof. Giampaolo Buticchi, post-doc and Von Humboldt Fellow, temporary professor at Kiel University and main leading scientific assistant of the Chair of Power Electronics in his early years, and Dr. Levy Costa, his PhD Student, now Assistant Professor at TU Eindhoven. Particular focus was given to a multiple-winding-based-transformer based dc/dc converter and the use of Wide Band Gap semiconductors (SiC and GaN) (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2018.2799680) as well as the use of different basic cells (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2021.3064302) where the power flow is not symmetrical in both directions, resulting in a consequent reduction of cost and increase in efficiency. This research led to participation in the second priority program of the DFG about GaN-based power converters. The work on modular multilevel converters, also concerning protection and with applications in Medium Voltage as well as High Voltage DC (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2022.3167625, https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2019.2935980, https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2018.2887166) has been carried out with key contributions from Prof. Hossein Imaneini, Senior Von Humboldt Fellow and now DFG Heisenberg Fellow at Kiel University, and Dr. Marius Langwasser, his PhD Student, currently the main Chair Scientific Assistant, who developed a new laboratory on hybrid grids and is now a leading scientist in the Kopernicus Initiative ENSURE.
Prof. Liserre's long-term interdisciplinary involvement in research between power electronics and power systems also led to the support of PES German Chapter for the organization of Powertech 2025 in Kiel, following the successful organization of PEDG 2022 sponsored by PELS.
Reliability of power converters and its improvement through control
In the last 15 years, Prof. Marco Liserre has been addressing the challenge of improving the reliability of power converters through control (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2017.2665697, https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2021.3063305, https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2021.3067782), a topic originally proposed in 2005 by Prof. Bob Lorenz and investigated under his guidance in CORPE at Aalborg University (https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2013.2290282). This research led to many original solutions, such as reactive power injection for improving reliability (https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2013.2240644), with key contributions from Prof. Ke Ma, who was a PhD Student in CORPE at the time and is now a Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Dr. Markus Andresen, his PhD Student, now Group Leader at Thyssenkrupp Maritime System, Germany. Prof. Liserre proposed an original concept called “Power Routing” to handle modular systems whose components have different remaining useful lifetimes, a concept that was a hypothesis of the ERC Grant HEART (https://doi.org/10.1109/MIE.2016.2588898). These activities are now continued within the “Electronic Energy Systems” group in Fraunhofer ISIT, with a key contribution from leading scientist Dr. Yoann Pascal.
Emerging topics
In recent years, Prof. Marco Liserre has been exploring new multidisciplinary challenges in magnetic and electrochemical storage modeling, collaborating with colleagues in material science, including Prof. R. Adelung for electrochemical storage and Prof. J. McCord for magnetics. This collaboration led to the creation of a new interdisciplinary laboratory in Energy Conversion for Battery Systems. He is currently promoting talkative power conversion in cooperation with Prof. P. Höher (Chair of Information and Coding Theory), where efforts in modeling power converters are directed towards characterizing their communication capabilities (https://doi.org/10.1109/OJPEL.2023.3237709). In both cases, these activities are developed with the key contribution of Dr. Hamzeh Beiranvand, a post-doc in his team, and the leading scientist of the Laboratory for Energy Conversion for Batteries.
Prof. Liserre is also actively utilizing Data Science tools like digital twins and data fusion (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-022-01495-8) approaches, adopting data-driven methodologies in cooperation with Professors in Informatics such as Prof. D. Nowotka and O. Landsiedel. The leading scientist in this endeavor is Dr. Sante Pugliese, who oversees a new Laboratory for Computational Power Electronics within the Centre for Networked Sensor Systems (ZEVS) at Kiel University.
Main recognitions
For his contribution in “Modelling and control of power converters in reliability and stability studies,” he has received the 2023 IEEE-PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award, the highest award of IEEE-PELS, presented at ECCE-USA 2023 in Nashville, USA.
For his contribution in “Development of power electronic systems for distributed generation and power quality improvement,” he has received the 2018 IEEE-IES Mittelmann Achievement Award, the highest award of IEEE-IES, presented at IECON 2018 in Washington, USA.
For his contributions to “grid connection of renewable energy systems and industrial drives,” he has been elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2013.
Complete List of Awards
- First Prize paper award by the Industrial Power Converter Committee at ECCE 2023, 2023
- 2023 IEEE Best Paper Award for the IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine
- 2023 IEEE-PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award, “for modelling and control of power converters in reliability and stability studies”, the highest award of IEEE-PELS.
- PCIM 2023 Paper Award (Sponsored by Semikron)
- Istvan Nagy 2022 Award (EPE-PEMC Council)
- Second Prize Paper Award by the Industrial Power Converter Committee at ECCE 2021, 2021.
- Second Place Prize Paper Award, IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, 2020.
- Best paper, Industrial Electronics Magazines, 2020.
- 2020 IEEE PES Working Group Award - Outstanding Technical Report “Microgrid Stability Definitions, Analysis, and Examples”, PES-TR-66, May 2018.
- Second Place Prize Paper Award for 2018 in the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.
- 2018 Mittelmann Achievement Award in recognition of his activities in development of power electronic systems for distributed generation and power quality improvement
- 2017 IEEE PELS Sustainable Energy Systems Technical Achievement Award
- Thomson Reuters "Highly Cited": “The world’s most influential scientific minds”
- The Dr. Bimal Bose Energy Systems Award
- IEEE Fellow, 2013 class, with citation "for contributions to grid connection of renewable energy systems and industrial drives"
- Third Prize paper award by the Industrial Power Converter Committee at ECCE 2012, 2012
- Best paper, Industrial Electronics Magazine 2011
- Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award 2011, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
- Early Career Award 2009, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
- Google Scholar citations ''2006 top cited'' paper on 'Stability of photovoltaic and wind turbine grid connected inverters for a large set of grid impedance values' - selected as one of the 2006 classics in power engineering
