Santiago Grijalva serves as Georgia Power Distinguished Professor and Director of the Advanced Computational Electricity Systems (ACES) Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also holds the position of Associate Director for Electricity Systems at the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI). His educational background includes an Electrical Engineer degree from EPN-Ecuador (1994), M.S. in Information Systems from ESPE-Ecuador (1997), and M.S./Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1999/2002). Grijalva pioneers research in decentralized power system architectures, renewable energy integration, and grid cybersecurity. His work spans smart grid technologies, electricity markets design, AI applications for power systems, and ultra-reliable grid architectures. The ACES Laboratory under his direction focuses on real-time power system control, informatics, and economics. His recent publications demonstrate strong trends in photovoltaic integration, multi-agent control systems, voltage stability analysis, and prosumer-based grid architectures, reflecting the industry's shift toward distributed energy resources and decentralized control paradigms. Georgia Tech ECE Outstanding Faculty Award Great Minds in STEM National Achievement Award ARPA-E More Than Smart Grid Disruptor Award IBM Faculty Award As principal investigator for major research projects funded by U.S. Department of Energy, ARPA-E, EPRI, PSERC, NSF, and industry sponsors, Grijalva leads initiatives modernizing electrical infrastructure. His past roles include Senior Software Developer at PowerWorld Corporation and Department Head at Ecuador's National Center for Energy Control (CENACE). He serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics and has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers. The Advanced Computational Electricity Systems (ACES) Laboratory operates at the intersection of power systems engineering and computational science, developing next-generation grid technologies for renewable integration and cyber-physical security.









