Dr. Massoud Amin

Dr. Massoud Amin, IEEE and ASME Fellow, is a professor of electrical & computer engineering (ECE), and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota. Globally known as Father of Smart Grid (https://tli.umn.edu/tli-blog/inspiration-behind-smart-grid-series-defining-moments), and a cyber-physical security leader, who directed all security-related R&D post 9/11 tragedies for all North American utilities. His focus is in complex systems, power & energy, defense, logistics and transportation systems, efficiency, security, resilience, and defense.

Dr. Amin directed the Technological Leadership Institute (TLI.umn.edu), from March 2003 until late 2018, where he led 7 endowed chairs and 54 associated faculty from across the 9 colleges of UMN, executives from industry and governmental leaders, to develop local and global leaders for technology enterprises. At TLI he pioneered and led several initiatives – including founding and leading two new graduate degree programs in security technologies (MSST.umn.edu, 2009-present) and in medical device innovation (MDI.umn.edu, 2014-present), in addition to minors and certificates on cyber security and information assurance. TLI has had substantial positive impact on the economy of Minnesota and beyond by developing local and global leaders for public and private enterprises.

Dr. Amin’s professional contributions have primarily been in three areas:

  • Defense networks, combat & logistics systems – Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I), IVHS, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (1982-1997)
  • Modernization, efficiency, security & resilience of interdependent national critical infrastructures, including power, energy, communications, finance, and transportation (1997-present), and
  • Technology/business/policy foresight & strategy (1997-present).

He is Chairman Emeritus of the IEEE Smart Grid (Jan. 2014-Aug. 2018), and, from June 2010 to August 2017, was a member of the Texas Reliability Entity (as board chairman), a utility industry regional entity that oversees reliability of ERCOT region. From January 2013 to August 2017, he also served as a board member of the Midwest Reliability Organization. Previously, he served on the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE) at the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2001-07) and on the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BMSA) at the National Academy of Sciences (2006-09)