Nishanth Gadiyar

Hi there, I am Nishanth Gadiyar, a member of the R&D staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). I also hold the Alvin M. Weinberg distinguished staff fellowship.

Prior to joining ORNL in October 2024, I worked as a Research Engineer at General Electric (GE) Research, a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a research intern at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories.

I received my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I worked with Prof. Eric Severson at the world-renowned Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC). A redacted version of my Ph.D. thesis can be found here.

My current research focuses on developing high-performance and sustainable electro-mechanical systems for energy conversion and motion control. I work at the intersection of electric machines, power-electronics, and physics-based control to create devices and systems that can efficiently and sustainably convert energy between electrical (e.g., currents, voltages) and mechanical forms (i.e., position, speed, torque, force).

Thanks to the multi-disciplinary nature of my research, I am fortunate to closely collaborate with experts in the areas of mechanical engineering, chemistry, materials science, semiconductor physics, nuclear physics / neutron science, high throughput computing, and AI / machine learning. Areas of application for my research include, electrified transportation and off-highway vehicles, aerospace actuation and propulsion, precision mechatronics and robotic actuators, turbomachinery, grid-scale energy storage, and wind / renewable energy.

Note: Before changing my name in March 2025, I had only one name “Nishanth” and was mostly known as FNU Nishanth. Read more about “FNU” here.

Recent news

Feb 03, 2025	Re-branding...FNU Nishanth is Nishanth Gadiyar
Jan 27, 2025	Three manuscripts accepted at IEEE IEMDC 2025.
Jan 05, 2025	New LDRD funding (~US$ 700k) to develop sustainable multi-harmonic electric machines.
Dec 25, 2024	New paper on Multi-material AM-enabled high-speed SynR machine in the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.
Dec 18, 2024	Nishanth has been selected for the FY25 cohort of the prestigious early-career development program at ORNL.
Oct 25, 2024	Nishanth joins the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Distinguished Staff Fellow.
Sep 02, 2024	Nishanth is serving as the short courses and tutorials chair and track chair at IEEE ITEC+EATS 2025.
Mar 02, 2024	Two papers published in the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, March-April 2024 issue: F. Nishanth, J. Van de Ven and E. L. Severson, “Evaluation of Torque-Dense Electric Machine Technology for Off-Highway Vehicle Electrification,” in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 3062-3074, March-April 2024. F. Nishanth, A. Khamitov and E. L. Severson, “Design of Electric Machine Windings to Independently Control Multiple Airgap Harmonics,” in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 3039-3050, March-April 2024.
Mar 02, 2024	Nishanth is serving as the publicity chair and a track chair at IEEE IEMDC 2025
Aug 21, 2023	Nishanth has joined the Aerospace Electric Machines Laboratory at GE Research in Niskayuna, NY.
Feb 07, 2023	Nishanth has successfully defended his Ph.D. The degree will be conferred at UW-Madison’s May 2023 commencement. Nishanth will be continuing as a post-doctoral research associate with Prof. Severson at WEMPEC.

Key publications

IEEE-TIA

Development of an Integrated Electro-Hydraulic Machine to Electrify Off-highway Vehicles

FNU Nishanth, Garrett Bohach, Md Minal Nahin, and 2 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2022

DOI Bib

@article{9826430,
  author = {Nishanth, FNU and Bohach, Garrett and Nahin, Md Minal and VandeVen, James and Severson, Eric L.},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications},
  title = {Development of an Integrated Electro-Hydraulic Machine to Electrify Off-highway Vehicles},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {58},
  number = {5},
  pages = {6163-6174},
  keywords = {Hydraulic systems;Pumps;Electric machines;Power system measurements;Density measurement;Torque;Rails;Axial flux machine;electric machine design;hydraulic-electric integration;multiphysics optimization;off-highway vehicle electrification;power density;radial piston pump},
  doi = {10.1109/TIA.2022.3189609},
  category = {Journals},
}

IEEE-TEC

Characterization of an Axial Flux Machine With an Additively Manufactured Stator

FNU Nishanth, Alexander D. Goodall, Iain Todd, and 1 more author

IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 2023

DOI Bib

@article{10149361,
  author = {Nishanth, FNU and Goodall, Alexander D. and Todd, Iain and Severson, Eric L.},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion},
  title = {Characterization of an Axial Flux Machine With an Additively Manufactured Stator},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {38},
  number = {4},
  pages = {2717-2729},
  keywords = {Magnetic flux;Soft magnetic materials;Stator windings;Stator cores;Steel;Lamination;Eddy currents;3D printed electric machines;axial flux machines;metal additive manufacturing;eddy current limiting structures;electric machine fabrication;hilbert pattern},
  doi = {10.1109/TEC.2023.3285539},
  category = {Journals},
}

IEEE-TIA

Design of Electric Machine Windings to Independently Control Multiple Airgap Harmonics

FNU Nishanth, Anvar Khamitov, and Eric L. Severson

IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2024

DOI Bib

@article{10313586,
  author = {Nishanth, FNU and Khamitov, Anvar and Severson, Eric L.},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications},
  title = {Design of Electric Machine Windings to Independently Control Multiple Airgap Harmonics},
  year = {2024},
  volume = {60},
  number = {2},
  pages = {3039-3050},
  keywords = {Windings;Harmonic analysis;Rotors;Torque;Electric machines;Stars;Power system harmonics;Electric machines;multiphase machines;multi-harmonic machines;winding design;multiple airgap fields;torque enhancement;bearingless machines;brushless excitation systems},
  doi = {10.1109/TIA.2023.3331662},
  category = {Journals},
}

IEEE-TIA

Development of Solid Synchronous Reluctance Rotors With Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing

Dante Newman, Patrick Faue, FNU Nishanth, and 4 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2025

DOI Bib

@article{newman2024development,
  title = {Development of Solid Synchronous Reluctance Rotors With Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing},
  author = {Newman, Dante and Faue, Patrick and Nishanth, FNU and Rankouhi, Behzad and Pfefferkorn, Frank E and Thoma, Dan J and Severson, Eric},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1109/TIA.2024.3522210},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  category = {Journals},
}