Sakis Meliopoulos has been chosen to receive the 2010 International George Montefiore Award.  This award, given every five years, recognizes fundamental contributions to smart grids or smart electricity networks.  The ceremony will be held in Liege, Belgium at the Montefiore Award Workshop on "Challenges and Opportunities of Electric Energy Systems of the Future."  

The award features a cash prize of 25,000 euros.  Dr. Meliopoulos will use his share to finance the Clayton Griffin Student Award, which is presented at the annual Protective Relaying Conference that he coordinates each year, and another student award at the Technical University of Athens, Greece, where he earned his undergraduate degree.  

Dr. Meliopoulous is currently the Georgia Power Distinguished Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering.  He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in '74 and '76 respectively and then joined the faculty at Tech.  Dr. Meliopoulos helped the development of the power program at Georgia Tech by contributing to the modernization of existing courses, introducing new courses, initiating research activities and developing continuing education programs.