Dr. Mahmoud Kabalan is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Founding Director of the Center for Microgrid Research (CMR) at the University of St. Thomas (UST) in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the recipient of the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant which is the National Science Foundation's most prestigious grant in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their organization. Dr. Kabalan is the Principal Investigator of more than $15 million grants and contracts on electric power systems research and development. His work has been supported by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Minnesota Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation. He led and supervised the commissioning of a $3 million industry-grade microgrid on UST’s St Paul campus. He has more than 35 peer-reviewed publications on power systems and microgrids. He was a contributing author to multiple industry-wide technical reports on microgrid operations and research. Dr. Kabalan has served as a subject matter expert on multiple state and federal committees such as NSF, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MN PUC). He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Minnesota.