Dr. Tiefu Zhao

Dr. Tiefu Zhao is an Associate Professor and currently serves as the Interim Director for North Carolina Battery Complexity, Autonomous Vehicle and Electrification Research Center (BATT CAVE) at UNC Charlotte. He has over 15 years of combined academic and industry experience in renewable energy and power electronics.  
Before joining UNC Charlotte, he was with Eaton Corporation, where he led a global R&D team for technology innovations and commercialization in power electronics and power management areas. Dr. Zhao’s current research focuses on high-performance power conversion, wireless power transfer technology, and electrical fault detection. His research has been supported by the U.S. Departments of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT), and many industry partners. He received a B.S. and M.S. from Tsinghua University, along with a Ph.D. degree from NC State University. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed IEEE articles and holds 14 patents.