About Me
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My father was a highly educated person and a respected scholar. I'm the sixth of eight children. Six of us (including myself) went on to become university professors and school teachers. Electricity has captured my interest since I was six years old when one day my older brother connected a small lamp to an old zinc-carbon telephone battery known as a wet cell. I switched on the circuit and was amazed when the light came on. Some of my childhood activities were playing soccer, swimming and biking which included occasional biking trips with my friends to Persepolis.
After graduating from high school in 1958, I went to England and enrolled in Faraday House Engineering College in London. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963. The time I spent in London made a remarkable influence on my adult life. It offered a valuable opportunity to become familiar with a culture having liberties of speech and ideas. In 1963 I went to the United States, and I attended the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1966, I finished my M.S. degree in electrical engineering, majoring in power systems under the supervision of the renowned professor Dr. William A. Lewis. After graduation, I accepted a position with Pioneer Service & Engineering Company in Chicago, where I was involved in the design of electric power plants and EHV transmission lines. My major achievements were the developments of computer programs in FORTRAN for power system analysis including load flow, short-circuit, and transient stability programs. During my years living in Chicago I made so many great memories that I will cherish forever.
In 1968, I left Pioneer Service & Engineering Company and returned to my home town Shiraz to accept a two-year contract as an assistant professor in Pahlavi University. It was in Shiraz were I met Jila and in July 13, 1968 we married. I developed and taught courses in electric machines, electric power courses and numerical analysis. I also helped in the establishment of a well-equipped electric power and machine laboratory. It was here that I realized my love of teaching and decided to continue my graduate study. In 1970, I returned to the United States with my wife, and I attended the University of Missouri at Columbia, MO. About one year later, my son Dana was born. Shortly thereafter, in 1972, I obtained my Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering, majoring in power systems.
The same year I went to Iran to teach in the electrical engineering department at Pahlavi University. In 1974, I was promoted to associate professor and head of the department of electrical engineering. I then became assistant dean of academic affair in 1976. Teaching was the most enjoyable part of my "job." I always worked hard to make my classes worthwhile. From 1977-78, I spent a year of sabbatical as a visiting professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. My other sons, Fred and Cameron were born four years apart, both in the city of Shiraz. In 1983 my family and I immigrated to the United States. After a year of teaching at Georgia Southern University, I accepted a position as an associate professor at the electrical engineering department at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. Houghton is located on the south shore of Portage Lake in Upper Peninsula, surrounded by water with numerous inland lakes and streams. An annual average of 180 inches of snowfall makes this area an ideal place for winter sports. My wife and I together with our three sons enjoyed excellent downhill skiing and miles of challenging cross-country skiing.
In 1988 we moved from Houghton to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I accepted a professorial position in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. In May 3, 1989 I became a citizen of the United States of America. I would tell my students that I am Iranian by birth and a USA citizen by choice, and a proud citizen of both countries.
At MSOE, I developed and taught many courses in the areas of electric circuits, control systems and power systems. I improved the electrical machinery laboratory and developed lab manuals for the electric machine laboratory. In 2002, I established a new real-time control system laboratory. One of my greatest accomplishments in my academic career was writing a power system analysis textbook. This text has been adopted by many universities in the United States and numerous universities overseas. This textbook has been translated in other languages including Chinese. My motivation in writing this book stemmed from the need to fully integrate MATLAB and SIMULINK throughout the text. I based the content of this book on the courses that I have taught throughout the years at MTU and MSOE. The development of a comprehensive Power Toolbox is of profound significance and one of the outstanding features of this text which enables students to perform analyses and explore power system design issues with ease. The toolbox evolved from the power system programs which I originally developed in FORTRAN when working for the Pioneer Service and Engineering Company in the late sixties.
I retired in 2004 and my wife and I relocated to Alexandria, Virginia. Still I enjoy just about anything having to do with computers and programming, especially in MATLAB. I love traditional music and cultures and I have traveled extensively in Europe. It is my dream to learn other languages and recently I've taken up French Language. I find it quite challenging, but it is a good way to keep one’s brain agile. Hopefully I will further this goal by frequent travel to France.