Yasuhiro Tanaka – the winner of 2018 IEEE Caixin Sun and Stan Grzybowski Lifetime Achievement Award

Yasuhiro Tanaka is a professor of Tokyo City University, Japan, and he is successor of Prof. Tatsuo Takada, the inventor of PEA (Pulsed Electro-acoustic) method. His major research field has concentrated on the development of the PEA space charge measurement system. He has applied this systems to observe the behavior of various polymeric insulating materials, such as polyolefins, polyimide and epoxies. He especially focused on the effect of so-called packet-like charge formation in polyethylene and its impact on electrical breakdown under high dc voltage stress. He proved that an effective suppression of space charge accumulation can be achieved by adding to polyethylene an inorganic nano-sized filler. His outstanding research achievements have stimulated many researchers working on development of cable insulating materials for HVDC applications. Present research of Yasuhiro Tanaka concentrate on the development of space charge measurement system operating at high temperatures and under ultra-high electric fields, gamma-ray irradiation or electron-beam irradiation in vacuum.

Yasuhiro Tanaka has lead for the last five years the Japanese research activities on insulating materials as a chair of Technical Committee of Dielectrics and Insulating Materials in IEEJ (The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan). He organized during this period two international symposia in 2014 and 2017 (International Symposium on Electrical Insulating Materials – ISEIM), where he introduced special sessions dedicated to advanced numerical simulations of polymeric materials. As a member of international standardization committees, he contributed to the development of IEC technical specification 62758: “Calibration of space charge measuring equipment based on pulsed electro-acoustic measurement principle”, for which he was awarded by IEC in 2013 (IEC1906 Award). He still continues this activity as a convener of an IEC working group (TC112 WG8) preparing technical specification on space charge measurements at high temperatures. Yasuhiro Tanaka is a member of CIGRE SC D1 (Materials and Emerging Test Techniques) and a member IEEE DEIS Administrative Committee.