2023 Haggerty Award for Research Excellence Recipient

Dr. Ayman EL-Refaie is a world-renowned expert in the areas of electrical machines, drives and power conversion. With over 20 years of research experience, he has 48 issued U.S. patents, 69 highly cited journal publications and 135 conference publications with several others pending.

He has served and is serving as principal investigator on several multi-million-dollar research grants with an established track record in developing innovative technologies that have impacted the use of renewable energy, sustainability and electrification of transportation.

EL-Refaie is currently a pioneer in developing low-cost electric drivetrains for hybrid and electric vehicles. He recently received a $6.25 million Department of Energy grant to pursue this work. This project will lead to novel high-performance electric drivetrains that eliminate rare-earth material. These materials are currently relied upon in traction motors, and they pose significant sustainability risk due to the geopolitical challenges surrounding them as 95% of these materials come from overseas.

He is also leading pioneering effort to develop high specific power electric drivetrains for aerospace applications enabled by additive manufacturing; he has recently received a $6.8 million ARPA-E (part of the DOE) grant to pursue this work. This project achieves two to three times improvement in specific motor power, which will be a key enabler for hybrid and electric propulsion for the future of aviation.

“I am very honored and humbled to receive such a prestigious award,” EL-Rafaie said. “I am very grateful to Mr. Lawrence G. Haggerty for his generous donation to establish this award. I am also very grateful for the university, college and department for their support and recognition. I consider this more of a team award recognizing the efforts of our research team especially my graduate students who conduct the main bulk of the research work.”