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- Md. Azizur (Aziz) Rahman (9 January 1941 – 16 June 2018) was a Canadian Bangladeshi inventor of modern energy-efficient electric motors that span multiple industry applications. He was an electrical engineer, professor, researcher and scientist. He is internationally recognized as one of the founding innovators of modern power engineering and a pioneer in the development and application of interior permanent magnet motors and associated drive technology-used in the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius. Since launching the Prius in 1997, Toyota surpassed global sales of 15 million hybrid vehicles in 2020, all of which use Dr. Rahman's IPM motor drive. His research contributions were broad and adopted in a wide range of electric motor applications ranging from vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, elevators to aircraft. Born in Santahar, East Bengal (now Bangladesh) on 9 January 1941, Rahman emigrated to Canada as a Commonwealth Scholar in the early 1960s to attend the University of Toronto, where he studied electrical engineering. While pursuing his PhD at Carleton University's power laboratory in 1966, Rahman originated the concept of an IPM motor when he discovered that a hysteresis motor is a temporarily magnetized permanent magnet synchronous machine. From them on, he has been solving problems involved in the design, manufacture and practical application of permanent magnet motors. In 1982, he successfully built the first self-start, high power rating (45 kW), high efficiency (>97%) and high power factor (>95%) IPM synchronous motor. Professor Rahman taught at the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University from 1976 until his death on 16 June 2018. He was a frequent visiting professor and research consultant collaborating on a wide range of motor applications to major industrial and automotive companies. He volunteered significant portion of his time to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was recognized for his technical contributions by all IEEE power and energy societies. He published 757 papers including 196 IEEE transactions papers, 11 patents and two books. In 2011, He co-authored the first book, entitled "An Introduction to Wavelet Modulated Inverters". Dr. Rahman was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was granted Life Fellow by the IEEE. (en)
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