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This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy...
This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.
Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and international members, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.
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BY KAUSHIK RAJASHEKARA
NED MOHAN, 77, passed away on Feb. 11, 2024, at his home in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Ned was preceded in death by his father, Madan Mohan Lal; mother, Champa Vati Devi; and brother, Shyam Agrawal. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Mary; their children, Michael and Tara; his sister, Krishna (Krishan) Gupta; sister-in-law, Sushma Agrawal; as well as cousins, nieces, nephews, and many members of the Paulsen family.
Ned was born Oct. 5, 1946, in New Delhi, India, and was raised in the central province of Madhya Pradesh. As an undergraduate, he studied at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He then attended the University of New Brunswick in Canada and, upon completing his M.S., earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1973.
In 1970, while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Ned met Mary Elizabeth Paulsen, the love of his life, through a computer date arranged as part of a Sociology Department research study. They married in 1973 and moved to the Twin Cities, where they raised two children and shared a mutually adoring relationship. Ned became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1982.
After completing a post-doctorate in 1975, he joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he remained until his passing. Ned’s work focused on power electronics, electric power systems, and sustainability. Among his many awards and recognitions, he became an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow in 1996, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2014, and was named a regents professor at the University of Minnesota in 2019.
Passionate about education, Ned wrote six textbooks, which have been translated into nine major languages. He also established the Consortium of Universities for Sustainable Power (CUSP) to create a global community of teaching and learning scholars, focused on delivering high-quality education in the field of electric energy systems with an emphasis on sustainability. More than 400 faculty members from 235 U.S. universities joined the consortium. Ned was tireless in his work and was deeply committed to making a difference in his field and the world. Perhaps his proudest professional accomplishment was mentoring and graduating 53 Ph.D. students who now carry on his legacy.
Among his favorite activities were going out to breakfast with his family, walking with his graduate students, having lunch with them at Seward Co-op, cooking Indian food, watching his children play tennis, repeating the same bad jokes, discussing politics and religion, and working at all hours. As a Hindu, he enjoyed giving tours of the Hindu Mandir in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and speaking about Hinduism at interfaith events. He created a free online resource for teaching about the principles of Hinduism.2
A memorial gathering for Ned was held at the Hindu Society of Minnesota temple.
As a devotee of Krishna, these words from Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita were among his favorites:
While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead. Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
_____________________________________ 1Adapted with permission of St. Paul Pioneer Press, Feb. 18, 2024. 2https://hinduismresource.com/