Marija Ilic

Marija D. Ilić, born in 1951, has established herself as a world leader in electric power systems engineering through her groundbreaking work in control and pricing of large electrical power systems. After earning her early degrees from the University of Belgrade and completing her D.Sc. in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1980, she built an impressive academic career spanning several prestigious institutions. Her journey included faculty positions at Cornell University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Carnegie Mellon University, where she served as a full professor before becoming Professor Emerita in 2016. Currently, she holds dual positions at MIT as a Senior Research Scientist at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) and Senior Staff member at Lincoln Laboratory's Energy Systems Group. Her research focuses on smart grids, modeling and control of future electric energy systems, and cyber-physical systems. As an IEEE Life Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, her contributions to hierarchical electric power systems control have earned her numerous accolades, including being the first recipient of the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award for Power Systems. She has authored hundreds of publications and supervised approximately 50 doctoral theses, while co-authoring influential books on power systems dynamics and control.