Thomas H. Lee (power engineer)

Thomas H. Lee (1923-2001) was a power engineer who spent his early career at the General Electric Company, which he joined in 1943. At GE he developed vacuum high power switching devices and directed development of HVDC transmission using power electronic devices, and received 30 United States patents. He later joined the MIT electrical engineering faculty, became the Philip Sporn Professor of Energy Processing, and in 1984 was appointed director of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna. He wrote Physics and Engineering of High Power Switching Devices, published by the MIT Press in 1975, and served the IEEE Power Engineering Society as its president. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1975.