Dr. Afshin Rezaei Zare

Biography

Afshin Rezaei-Zare received B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. He pursued research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, as a Visiting Scientist from 2005 to 2007 and as a Postdoctoral Fellow from 2007 to 2009. He joined the Power Renewable Energy Systems group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at York University in 2017 as an Associate Professor. Prior to his appointment at York University, he worked at Hydro Networks Inc. in Toronto, Canada from 2010 to 2017 in various departments including Special Studies, Transmission System Planning, and Transmission Reliability Performance Analytics. His broad work scope at Hydro included types of power system studies, root-cause failure analysis, project planning, budget distribution, risk evaluation, asset management, and reliability studies. His contributions in modeling and analyzing Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD) impacts on transformers have led to the development of novel computer tools for GMD analysis in power grids. Prof. Rezaei-Zare is the main contributor to the in-service power system real-time GMD simulator, which is currently used as the reference for operators' actions at the Ontario Grid Control Center (OGCC). He received the Hydro president award for innovation for his GMD real-time simulator. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada, a Senior Member of IEEE, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, and the Chair of the IEEE Task Force on Power Equipment Vulnerability to Geomagnetic Induced Currents.

Research Interests

Experience