Aaron St. Leger is an associate professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the United States Military Academy (USMA) located in West Point NY and tells us about himself and the Power & Energy Society.

I obtained my BSEE, MSEE, and Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia PA. I teach courses on power systems, electric machinery, alternative energy engineering, dynamic modeling, and controls. My research interests include analog computational methods for power system analysis, power transmission line modeling, Integration of renewable energy/demand response, and smart grid modeling and analysis.
In regards to my IEEE experience, I am a senior member and have been an IEEE member for fifteen years. I began with participating in the student branch at Drexel University and becoming the president of that branch my senior year. In graduate school I began participating in IEEE conferences and committees as they pertained to my research. Upon graduating with my Ph.D. and becoming an assistant professor at USMA I began to contribute more to IEEE PES. I continue to publish and present research through IEEE and have participated in a variety of committees and activities summarized below:

• Reviewer for IEEE research papers
• IEEE PES GOLD Committee founder and Chair (2010-2014)
• IEEE PES Power Engineering Education Committee Member (2010-2015)
• IEEE PES Student Activities Subcommittee Vice Chair (member 2011-2015)
• IEEE PES Young Professionals Committee Chair (2014-2015)
• IEEE PES Governing Board Member (2010-2015)

What does the IEEE Power and Energy offer Young Professionals?
IEEE PES has a large (<8000 members) vibrant community of young professionals and strong leadership from senior members. The PES YP community has hundreds of active members throughout the world organizing conferences, workshops, webinars, starting PES Chapters, etc. There are opportunities to contribute to this efforts and engage in our community. In addition, the senior members and leadership of PES has consistently shown an effort to reach out and engage with this community offering valuable mentorship and networking opportunities within the Power and Energy field. Some of Aaaron’s initiatives Over the past few years we have launched a number of initiatives through the PES YP Committee. Here are two which input to the community would be appreciated: • Created a sustained webinar program including professional development and technical topics. We are always looking for speakers and topic ideas. Tell us what you would like to see/hear and who you would like to hear it from! • Created PES YP Regional Representative Positions where PES YP are in charge of coordinating and fostering PES YP activities at the regional level. We are looking for volunteers to work with regional representatives to grow this program and ideas of how best to integrate within regional activities (e.g. PES chapters).