Prof. Deepak Divan is a Professor, John E Pippin Chair, GRA Eminent Scholar and Director of the Center for Distributed Energy at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, USA. His research interests are in the areas of power electronics, power systems, smart grids, and distributed control of power systems. He works closely with utilities, industry and is actively involved in research, teaching, entrepreneurship and starting new ventures.
Prof. Divan also serves as the Founder and Chief Scientist at Varentec, in Santa Clara, CA, and was the President and CTO from 2011-14, leading the company as it developed its suite of innovative distributed real-time grid control technologies. Varentec is funded by leading green-tech Venture Capital firm Khosla Ventures and renowned investor Bill Gates.
Prof. Divan's 40 years of academic and industrial experience has brought him many laurels. He is an elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, member of the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, a Fellow of the IEEE, past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and he is also the recipient of the prestigious IEEE William E Newell Field Medal. Prof. Divan has been at the forefront of founding or seeding several new ventures including Soft Switching Technologies, Innovolt, Varentec and Smart Wires, which together have raised >$160M in venture funding. Prof. Divan holds MS and PhD degrees from the University of Calgary, Canada. IITK conferred upon Prof. Deepak Divan the Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2020.
