91°µÍø

Bio

Nishanth is a Distinguished Staff Fellow with the Energy Science and Technology Directorate (ESTD) at ORNL and affiliated with the Electric Drives Research Group within the Buildings and Transportation Sciences Division (BTSD). 

Dr. Nishanth’s ongoing research develops high-performance and sustainable electro-mechanical systems for energy conversion and motion control. His research has applications to electric cars and trucks, off-highway vehicles, airplanes and ships, manufacturing industries, HVAC equipment, semiconductor manufacturing, energy storage using flywheels, and power generation.

Dr. Nishanth is a native of Mangalore, India. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was advised by . His dissertation research focused on developing torque-dense and power-dense axial flux electric machines to electrify off-highway vehicles, and led to the development of:

1. One of the first high-power, high-speed integrated electro-hydraulic machines to electrify off-highway vehicles.
2. A multi-physics optimization technique for co-design of the integrated electro-hydraulic machine.
3. One of the earliest additively manufactured electric machine stators with complex lamination-emulating geometry and 6.5% silicon steel, including experimental performance characterization.
4. A technique to design electric machine windings capable of controlling any spatial harmonics in the airgap, including demonstration of the torque density improvements using these controlled harmonics. 

Note: In Feb 2025, Dr. Nishanth changed his name from Fnu Nishanth and it's variants (Nishanth / Nishanth Nln etc) to Nishanth Gadiyar

Professional Experience

• Electric Machinery Design Research and Development Staff, ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN Oct 2024 - present
  • Member of the Electric Drives Research Group in the BTSD division
  • Electric machine and drive design for transportation and building equipment
     
• Research Engineer, GE Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA from Aug 2023 - Aug 2024
  • Lunar power - ARCHES (NASA Contract)
  • Aircraft Electrification under the following projects:
    • - e-FLITES (ARPA-E funded)
    • (CFM International funded)
       
• Research Associate (post-doc), WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Feb 2023 - Aug 2023
  • Electrification of a compact-track loader (DOE VTO funded).
    • Collaborators: (then with UW-Madison) and , University of Minnesota, Twin-cities.
  • • Collaborators: , , , University of Wisconsin-Madison.
       
• Research Intern, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Cambridge, MA, USA from June - August 2021
  • Topology Optimization of Electric Machines
    • Collaborator: Dr. Bingnan Wang, Sr. Principal Research Scientist.
       
• Research Assistant, WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Jan 2020 - Feb 2023
  • Axial Flux Machines for Off-highway Vehicle Electrification (Partially funded by DOE VTO)
    • Collaborators: (then with UW-Madison), , and , University of Minnesota, Twin-cities.
  • Additively manufactured axial flux machine stator with Hilbert structure.
    • Collaborators: (then with UW-Madison), , and , The University of Sheffied, U.K.
       
• Teaching Assistant, Dept. of ECE, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Aug 2018 - Dec 2021
  • ECE 713: Electromagnetic Design of AC Machines
  • ECE 412: Power Electronic Circuits
  • ECE 353: Introduction to Microprocessor Systems
  • ECE 210: Introductory Experience in Electrical Engineering

Awards

• Alvin M. Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellowship, ORNL, 2024
   
• Wisconsin Power Engineering Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022
   
• Project of the Year 2015 - Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, Student Project Program (SPP), IISc Bangalore, India.

Education

University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2023
   
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, 2020

Professional Service

Conference Organizing Committee Membership:

1. , North America
   • Topic Chair - Track D and Track H, ECCE 2024, Phoenix, AZ
2. • Publicity Chair, IEMDC 2025, Houston, TX
   • Track Chair, Track 3: Thermal, Materials and Efficiency Issues
3. • Short Courses & Tutorials Chair, ITEC 2025, Anaheim, CA.
   • Technical Track Chair: Electric Machines and Actuators, ITEC 2025, Anaheim, CA.
   • Young Professional Activities Chair, ITEC 2024, Chicago, IL.
   • Technical Track Chair: Electric Machines and Actuators, ITEC 2024, Chicago, IL.
   • Young Professional Activities Chair, ITEC 2023, Detroit, MI.
   • Session Chair: ITEC 2022, 2023.

Technical Journal Reviews

1. 91°µÍø Transactions on Industry Applications
2. 91°µÍø Transactions on Energy Conversion
3. 91°µÍø/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
4. 91°µÍø Transactions on Transportation Electrification
5. 91°µÍø Transactions on Industrial Electronics
6. 91°µÍø Transactions on Power Electronics
7. 91°µÍø Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
8. MDPI - Energies
9. MDPI - Machines

Professional Affiliations

• Senior Member, 91°µÍø

Specialized Equipment

• HBK Genesis DAQ system for multi-phase motor measurements - electrical, mechanical, and thermal.
• Oscilloscopes, voltage and current probes, power analyzers and other power electronic test & measurement equipment.

Trademarks and Patents

• Integrated electric-to-hydraulic conversion machine - US 12152572B2, granted 11/26/2024
   

Publications

Other Publications