Later this year, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) will present three GE Research employees with 2019 Achievement Awards.
The GE Research chapter of the Asia Pacific American Forum (APAF) is very active, with more than 140 members volunteering, educating, mentoring, and recruiting to promote the value of the Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIA) community. More so, GE’s APAF serves more than 9,000 APIA employees working at GE in North America.
This year, three of our active APAF members are being recognized by the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) for their great professional achievements and for the impact they are having as part of GE Research’s APAF community. Those being recognized include:
Cong Li, Promising Professional
A lead engineer and active member of GE Research’s APAF, Cong’s professional focus is on the development of high-performance power and electric systems and their supporting technologies. Among his accomplishments, Cong and his team have developed a SiC-based motor drive inverter, DC-DC converters, and AC-DC rectifier technologies that are crucial to applications for GE Aviation, GE Healthcare, and GE Lighting. He was also actively involved in multiple commercialization efforts of GE’s SiC converter technologies for electric vehicle and other aviation applications
Cong is very active in the community; from 2016 to 2018, he served as the president of the Young Professional Club (YPC) of the Capital District of New York. The YPC provides networking opportunities and career development advice to young professionals and students in the greater Capital Region. Together with his team, Cong hosted a series of well-received events covering topics such as career development, workshops on life events, understanding cultural differences, and workplace relationships.
As a key member of the APAF, Cong has helped to organize a number of events at GE Research, including the Walk for Education, a signature fundraising event for one local charity (Northern Rivers Family of Services) and two global charities. He is also an active member of the Albany Chapter of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA).
The SASE’s Promising Professional award recognizes Cong as an early career engineer who is making an impact on his local API community.
Shridhar Nath, Career Achievement
A founding member of GE Research’s APAF, Shridhar is an electrical engineer who has worked at GE Research for more than two decades. He currently serves as the wind blade technology leader, but has held many technical and leadership positions, including managing the $6 million Nondestructive Technologies Lab, which developed inspection technologies for aircraft engines, gas and wind turbines, oil & gas pipelines, and locomotives. Shridhar also served as the Composites Technology leader at GE Research, leading the growth strategy and managing operations for a $10 million portfolio on polymer composites.
A pillar of GE Research’s APAF organization, Shridhar has led countless volunteer initiatives aimed at helping his local community. These include Habitat for Humanity, and Roots and Wisdom, an Earth Day activity that supports organic farming and under-resourced youth in Schenectady, NY. For the past three years, he has mentored Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) students who are completing their Senior Capstone Engineering Design project.
Shridhar has a passion for helping inner city youth and exposing them to STEM and other skills in a nurturing environment. He mentors students in math and reading at Zoller Elementary School, an inner-city school in Schenectady, and coaches Schenectady city youth through a STEM-focused program called Rise-High.
The SASE’s Career Achievement award recognizes Shridhar for his significant professional achievements, his broad social/economic value and impact, and his performance as a role model and mentor for the API community.
Jerry Liu, Technical/Research/Business Achievement
A principal scientist at GE Research, Jerry holds more than 50 U.S. patents and has worked on a variety of projects in his 17-year career. His work has and continues to enable many new technologies that are crucial to applications for GE Lighting, GE Healthcare, GE Power, and GE Aviation. In one project, Jerry and his team developed a family of red phosphors for LED applications, commercially known as TriGain, that have been licensed by major LED manufactures and display makers and used in many commercial mobile phones, tablets, televisions, etc.
In another project, Jerry led a team in the development of flexible organic X-ray detectors that could enable medical imaging and industrial inspection applications that are otherwise impossible with rigid and fragile silicon-based detectors. He was also a project leader in the development of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting applications.
Jerry is very active in the community; he has served as a volunteer for the Northeast Regional Food Bank, the Schenectady City Mission, and as a teacher for a local Chinese school. He is the co-leader of GE Research’s APAF and co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Public Affairs Albany Chapter (APAPA). He served on APAPA’s first Board of Directors, promoting awareness of public affairs through training programs on civic leadership, internships, and voter registration.
The SASE’s Technical/Research/Business Achievement award recognizes Jerry for having managed the development of products and intellectual property that have had a broad impact and high value.
Two additional GE employees and APAF members are also being recognized with 2019 SASE Achievement Awards:
- Nam Tran, GE Power – Professional Achievement award – Honors highly experienced, mid-career professionals who have made significant discoveries, important advances in their chosen career paths, and are acknowledged leaders of large initiatives.
- Rajen Desai, GE Aviation – ERG Leadership award – Honors those who serve as leaders in their company’s API employee resource group and who work tirelessly to advance the group’s mission.
All recipients will be formally recognized during the 2019 Achievement Awards Dinner in October in Pittsburgh, PA. The dinner will be held in conjunction with the 2019 SASE National Conference and STEM Career Fair.
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