Membership
Requirements for Membership
6.2 Requirement for membership
Members should be engaged actively and personally in major research as defined by the scope.
Members should be outstanding experts in the field.
6.3 Number of members
The Club wishes to bring together as many international excellent experts in the field as possible. However, there is recognition that this is not feasible or practical, and therefore to assure effective and open discussions, the membership shall be restricted to 30. In exceptional and thoroughly justified cases, and with the agreement of its members, this number can be exceeded.
6.4 Membership list
An up-to-date list of all members shall be available at all times and be appended to these bylaws as appendix A and be available on the website.
A list of members including e-mail addresses and institutions will be available to the Club.
This list must be updated at each meeting of the members.
To assure proper and effective communication between members, including Chair, Secretary and Sub Chairs, individual members are responsible for informing the Chair about any change in e-mail address and/or institution.
6.5 Rights of members
Members may participate at each meeting (circle and plenary) and may give presentations in line with the Club scope provided they are the author or a co-author of this presentation.
Members may invite non-members to the circle meetings and guests to the plenary sessions. All participants will be permitted to make scientific comments, remarks or criticize the content or subject material being presented at the meeting.
Members may table proposals through the Chair and may vote on issues tabled at the Club members’ meetings.
Any member is eligible to be elected as Chair, Secretary, Sub Chair, website coordinator or any other role that members may wish to create.
Any member may offer to host a Club meeting at their own institution with the agreement of the other members of the Club.
To ensure that all members have an opportunity to present at meetings, normally it will be expected that each member presents up to one presentation. If a member wishes to make more than one presentation, this rule may be relaxed at each meeting provided there is sufficient time to permit decisions and permission is sought from the Chair and the Secretary. The Chair’s and the Secretary’s decision is final.
Each member may invite only one guest to the plenary session where the guest is required to make a presentation. The limit on the number of guests may be relaxed provided that there are no more guests than participating members and the number of all participants does not exceed 40. The member must discuss with the Chair the reason why they are inviting an additional guest. The Chair’s decision on additional guests is final.
6.6 Duties of members
All members shall act in accordance with the bylaws.
For continuing membership:
(i) Each member shall attend at least one plenary session during a period of three consecutive plenary sessions.
(j) Members shall be working personally and actively in the field covered by the scope.
(k) If members leaves job then it is sufficient that they continue to be active in an activity relevant to the scope to continue as a member.
Members shall inform the secretary about their planned participation, presentation title and the name of their guest to be invited, as applicable. If a member wishes to invite a guest, they must inform the secretary of the title of their guest’s presentation and contact details (address for written correspondence and email address).
If a member nominates a guest as a candidate for membership, this member shall forward the candidate’s documents to the Chair and the secretary.
If a member receives a request to attend a circle meeting this member shall forward this information to the relevant circle Sub Chair.
Election of Members
6.7 Becoming a member
Any expert who personally works either theoretically or experimentally in the field covered by the scope may be a candidate for Club membership. If the nominated candidate meets all of the following requirements, then this person can be nominated to become a member of the Club.
Candidates shall:
(e) have published original papers covering the scope in relevant quality periodicals reporting their original scientific work at or about that required level for a Doctoral thesis.
(f) be active in the field directly connected to the scope and is not expected to leave the field within the foreseeable future.
(g) have attended at least two Club meetings and at least one as a guest at plenary session and have given at least two presentations related to their research work.
(h) send (through the member who is their nominator for candidature) their curriculum vitae and a list of their published papers to the Chair and the Secretary, if required thereafter by a member a reprint (or equivalent). The Chair will contact the candidate and request such reprints (or equivalent). The candidate shall send the selected reprints (or equivalent) to the Chair for distribution.
For a candidate to become a member they are required to satisfy the following criteria:
vi. All requirements from (6.7 a to d) shall be completely fulfilled by the candidate.
vii. Only the achievements of the candidate in the related field shall be considered and not university degree, other memberships, place in their organization, etc.
viii. The candidate shall fulfill the requirement for membership (6.2)
ix. The candidate adds to the balance of the Club membership.
x. The procedure to become a member is as follows:
1. Members become acquainted with an expert as a guest at least two meetings (including at least one plenary) prior to the “voting” at a members’ meeting, where members will vote on a candidate.
2. At least one member nominates the guest as candidate for membership, in a plenary session prior to the “voting” members’ meeting,
3. The documents in (d) shall be sent to the Chair and the Secretary six months before the next plenary session at which the vote will take place. The Chair distributes these documents and handles possible requests for reprints (or equivalent) directly with the candidate.
4. At the plenary session when the vote is to occur and after an evaluation of the candidate, members vote whether they provisionally accept the candidate as a member.
5. If the vote is negative, the candidate may be re-evaluated at the next plenary session.
6. If the vote is positive, a period of six months starts within which members can still raise objections against the candidate. These shall be communicated to all other members within six months after the plenary session at which the vote was taken.
7. If no objections are received by the Chair within 6 months, the candidate becomes a member.
8. If objections are received, the candidate may be re-evaluated at the next plenary session.
Our Current Members

Prof. Dr. René Peter Paul Smeets ( NL)
Chairman
René Peter Paul Smeets received the M.Sc. degree in physics from the Eindhoven Univ.of Technology in 1981. He obtained a Ph.D. degree for research work on vacuum arcs. Until 1995, he was an assistant professor at Eindhoven University, dealing with high-frequency phenomena in power engineering. During 1991 he worked with Toshiba Corporation’s Heavy Apparatus Engineering Laboratory in Japan in the development of low-surge vacuum interrupters. In 1995, he joined KEMA. At present, he manages the R&D activities of DNV GL Energy ex-KEMA’s High Power Laboratory. In 2001, he was appointed part-time professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the field of high-power switching technology. He is convener of CIGRE TFA3.01, member of CIGRE WGA3.12, IEC MT32 of IEC 17A, IEEE (M 1995, SM 2002) and CIGRE.
Contact Details:
Prof. Dr. R.P.P. Smeets, Ph.D, FIEEE
DNV GL – Energy ex-KEMA T&D Testing Service
Product Development and Innovation
DNV GL – Energy ex-KEMA Nederland B.V.
Postal Address: P.O. Box 9035 – 6800 ET ARNHEIM
The Netherlands
Delivery Address: Utrechtseweg 310, 6812 AR ARNHEIM
The Netherlands
Registered Arnhem 09080262
BTW (VAT) No: 802 260 470 B01
Tel: +31 (26) 356 2893
Karim Bousoltane
FR
Pierre Chevrier
FR
Max Claessens
CH
Thierry Delachaux
CH
Edgar Dullni
DE
Leslie Falkingham
GB
Georges Gaudart
FR
Dietmar Gentsch
DE
Hiroki Ito
JP
Shenli Jia
CN
Gordon Jones
GB
Viktor Kertesz
HU
Michael Kurrat
DE
Martin Leusenkamp
CN
Manfred Lindmayer
DE
Zhiyuan Liu
CN
John Lowke
AU
Philippe Robin-Jouan
FR
Hans Schellekens
FR
Ekkehard Schade
CH
Martin Seeger
CH
John Shea
US
René Smeets
NL
Joseph Spencer
DE
Erik Taylor
DE
Toshiyuki Uchii
JP
Joseph Yan
GB
Satoru Yanabu
JP