D P Kothari is presently Vice Chancellor of VIT University, Vellore. He obtained a BE (Electrical) in 1967, ME (Power Systems) in 1969 and PhD in 1975 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, Rajasthan. From 1969 to 1977, he was involved in teaching and development of several courses at BITS Pilani. Prior to his assuming charge as Vice Chancellor of VIT University, Dr Kothari served as Director In-charge and Deputy Director (Administration) as well as Head Centre for Energy Studies at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; and as Principal, Visvesvaraya Regional Engineering College, Nagpur. He was Visiting Professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, during 1982–83 and 1989 for two years. He was NSF Fellow at Purdue University, US in 1992.

Dr Kothari, who is a recipient of the Most Active Researcher Award, has published and presented 625 research papers in various national as well as international journals, conferences, guided 30 PhD scholars and 63 MTech students, and authored 21 books in Power Systems and other allied areas. He has delivered several keynote addresses and invited lectures at both national and international conferences on Electric Energy Systems. He has also delivered 42 video lectures on science and technology on YouTube with a maximum of 35,000 hits!

Dr Kothari is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), Fellow of Indian National Academy of Sciences [FNASc], Fellow of Institution of Engineers (FIE) and Senior Member, IEEE.

His many awards include the National Khosla award for Lifetime Achievements in Engineering for 2005 from IIT Roorkee. The University Grants Commission (UGC), Govt. of India, has bestowed the UGC National Swami Pranavananda Saraswati award for 2005 on Education for his outstanding scholarly contributions.

He is also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award (2009) by the World Management Congress, New Delhi, for his contribution to the areas of educational planning and administration. His fields of specialization are Optimal Hydro-thermal Scheduling, Unit Commitment, Maintenance Scheduling, Energy Conservation (loss minimization and voltage control), Power Quality and Energy Systems Planning and Modelling.

The author can be contacted at dpk0710@yahoo.com

I J Nagrath is Adjunct Professor, BITS Pilani, from where he retired in July 1999 as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Deputy Director. He is now actively engaged in writing books related to his long teaching and research experience.

He obtained his BE with Honours in Electrical Engineering from Birla Engineering College in 1951 and MS from the University of Wisconsin, USA in 1956.

He has co-authored several successful books which include Electric Machines, 3/e, Modern Power System Analysis, Power System Engineering, Signals and Systems, Electrical Machines, Sigma Series and has authored Basic Electrical Engineering (all published by TMH). He has also co-authored Control System Engineering and authored Electronics: Analog and Digital. Besides he has these, published several research papers in prestigious national and international journals and continues to be active in studies and writing.