From March 4 to 6, 2026, Jose Rodriguez, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University and Fellow of the Chilean Academy of Engineering, visited the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics (EEA) of Tsinghua University. During his visit, Professor Rodriguez delivered an academic lecture and a career development lecture on March 5 and 6 respectively. The lectures were chaired by Professor Li Yongdong, and attended by Sun Kai, Deputy Dean of EEA, as well as more than 50 faculty members and students from inside and outside the university.
Academic Lecture: Focusing on Model Predictive Control and Energy Transition
From 9:00 to 12:00 a.m. on March 5, the academic lecture was held at EEA. Professor Li Yongdong first introduced the distinguished guest present. Sun Kai, Deputy Dean of EEA, delivered a welcome speech, extending a warm welcome to Professor Rodriguez on his visit, thanking him for his long-term support for the disciplinary development and talent cultivation of EEA, and expressing the expectation to further strengthen academic exchanges and cooperation. Professor Rodriguez stated that he was greatly honored to visit EEA as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University. He then delivered two academic reports entitled Model Predictive Control: Basic Concepts, Applications, Progress and Challenges and Energy Transition towards a Sustainable World: The Core Role of Power Electronics Technology. In the reports, Professor Rodriguez systematically expounded the basic theoretical framework of model predictive control technology and its practical application scenarios; meanwhile, he conducted an in-depth analysis of the global trend of energy transition, emphasizing that power electronics technology plays a core role in the process of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Career Development Lecture: Sharing Research Experience and Career Planning
From 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. on March 6, Professor Rodriguez gave a career development lecture. Combining his decades of research and teaching experience, he shared with the faculty and students present on how to carry out academic research efficiently and write high-quality academic papers, and put forward targeted suggestions on how to scientifically plan one's personal career. During the interactive session, the professor provided detailed answers to the practical problems encountered by the faculty and students in the process of scientific research and career planning.
About Professor Jose Rodriguez
Jose Rodriguez, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University, Fellow of the Chilean Academy of Engineering and IEEE Life Fellow, has long been dedicated to the research on high-performance control of electric drive systems and control of new energy conversion systems, and has focused on cutting-edge innovative research in model predictive control for more than 20 years. To date, Professor J. Rodriguez has published more than 1,000 academic papers, over 400 of which have been featured in leading international journals, with a total of more than 100,000 citations and an h-index of 120.
He is the only scholar in South America who has been listed in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers ranking for 11 consecutive years from 2014 to 2024. He was awarded the National Award for Applied and Technological Sciences by the Chilean government in 2014, and the Dr. Eugene Mittelman Achievement Award from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) in 2015. He was named a Highly Cited Researcher of the World by Thomson Reuters for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015, the only scientist from Chile to receive this honor. He has won the Best Paper Award of IEEE Transactions seven times, was appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University in 2025, and in 2026, he was awarded the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award—the highest honor in the field of power electronics.
