Peter Sauer
For exceptional mentorship of Grainger engineers, transformative electric power systems research and distinguished service to the U.S. Air Force
Grainger Chair Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
When asked what he liked about engineering, Peter Sauer once said, “I love that you get a chance to think big and think small.” As an educator and mentor, his favorite quote was an adaptation from Plutarch, “Students are candles to be lit, not bottles to be filled.”
Sauer came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1977 as a faculty member, teaching courses and directing research on power systems and electric machines.
Sauer’s lab modeled and simulated power system dynamics with applications to steady-state and transient stability analysis. He authored or co-authored more than 200 technical papers and, with Illinois faculty member M. A. Pai, he wrote a book, Power System Dynamics and Stability, published in 1998. He retired from full-time service to the university at the end of 2019 and held the venerated position of Grainger Chair Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering until his death in 2022.
Sauer served in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years (active and reserve duties), where he worked on electrical power distribution system design. He retired from the Air Force in 1998 as a lieutenant colonel.
Sauer served as the Program Director for Power Systems in the Electrical and Communication Systems Division of the National Science Foundation from August 1991 to August 1992. He was a co-founder of the nationwide Power Systems Engineering Research Center and of PowerWorld Corporation.
During his Illinois tenure, Sauer received numerous honors and accolades. In 2020, he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society Lifetime Achievement Award and, in 2022, the IEEE Tesla Award. In 2021, Sauer received the Marcia Peterman ECE Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.
Sauer led the Grainger Power Engineering Awards program for students from its inception in 1996. A former student, Bahman Hoveida, honored his teacher and mentor by establishing a named professorship, The Peter Sauer-Bahman Hoveida Distinguished Chair in Electric Power.
Peter Sauer was inducted into the Grainger Engineering Hall of Fame posthumously.
Degrees
- 1969, B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Missouri at Rolla
- 1974, M.S., Electrical Engineering from Purdue University
- 1977, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering from Purdue University