Rate My Professor Richard McMahon

Professor Richard McMahon is the Professor of Power Electronics at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, a role he assumed in 2016 to establish and lead the Power Electronics research group, broadening WMG's expertise in energy and electrical systems. Prior to this appointment, he held positions at the University of Cambridge, including Professor in the Electrical Engineering Division from 2002 to 2016, Reader from 1998 to 2002, Lecturer from 1988, Senior Research Associate at the Cavendish Laboratory from 1985 to 1988, and Research Assistant in the Engineering Department from 1980 to 1985. He earned his B.A. degree in Electrical Sciences in 1976 and Ph.D. degree in 1980 from the University of Cambridge. McMahon is a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, a Chartered Engineer (CEng), Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP), and Guest Professor at North China Electric Power University.

His research specializations focus on power electronics and electrical machines, particularly wide band-gap devices including silicon carbide and gallium nitride, applied to drive trains for hybrid and electric vehicles, wireless charging systems, battery energy storage at domestic and retail scales, power distribution interventions such as voltage regulators, and renewable generation from wind and marine sources using innovative linear generators. Emphasizing industrial collaboration, his work supports the automotive industry's transition to electrification. McMahon received the UK Energy Innovation Award in 2015 for Best University Technology with HTIP Limited and has delivered invited technical and public lectures. He contributes to EPSRC projects like the Underpinning Power Electronics switch optimisation theme. Key publications include 'Multiphysics Finite Element Analysis of Wire and Ribbon Bonds Under Pulse Power' (2025), 'A Self-Resonant Litz-Based Cable for Inductive Power Transfer' (2024), 'Design, build and retrofit of a 20 kW automotive wireless charging system using CCS interface' (2022), 'Highly reliable and efficient voltage optimizer based on direct PWM AC-AC buck converter' (2021), 'Influence of pole-pair combinations on the characteristics of the brushless doubly-fed generator' (2020), and 'Development of 50 kW wireless power transfer' (2020).