The 20th IEEE International Conference on Dielectric Liquids (ICDL 2019), chaired by Massimo Pompili, was held from June 23 to 27, 2019, hosted by the Faculty of Engineering of University of Roma “La Sapienza”. The ICDL 2019 is fully sponsored by the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), supported by Cargill, Fratelli Parodi, Midel, Baur, Ekofluid, Ergon, Haefely Hipotronics, IET, Nynas, Omicron and Sea Marconi. The conference was chaired by Massimo Pompili in collaboration with Technical Program Chair Luigi Calcara and the Italian CEI (Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano). IEEE ICDL 2019 is part of a set of conferences addressed, in particular, to physicists, chemists, engineers and, in general, to all those engaged in research and the practical applications of insulating fluids. In addition to traditional topics, this edition of ICDL included special sessions focused on the following items:
- synthetic and natural esters in TSO – DSO transformer applications;
- alternative gasses on SF6 having much less greenhouse impact;
- electrodynamics in emerging applications.
ICDL 2019 received more than 270 abstracts and 175 contributions were accepted for presentation during the four-day Conference. This event involved 365 authors and co-authors, presenting 170 contributions from 35 different Countries of all the 5 Continents.
The conference started with a welcome reception on June 23 with the speeches of Prof. Massimo Pompili, Chair of ICDL 2019 and Prof. Zhongdong Wang and Prof. Maks Babuder as Chairs of the past two ICDL Issues.
On June 24 the Hans Tropper Memorial Lecture was given to Prof. Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi, Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Boston, for his high contribution in the scientific advances of EHD pumps. The title of Prof. Yagoobi’s presentation was “Transport of Heat and Mass with Electrical Field: from Earth to Space”.
One of the most remarkable technical sessions addressed the increasing applications of synthetic and natural esters in TSO and DSO transformers.
During the ICDL 2019, participants, accompanying persons and guests attended a guided private visit to the invaluable masterpiece Sistine Chapel located downtown in Roma (Vatican City). All of the frescoes of the ceiling, as the Final Judgment, of the Sistine Chapel are the work of Michelangelo, who spent four years painting the vault between 1508 and 1512.
At the end of the conference, Prof. Pompili announced that he will take care of a new Special Issue on Liquid Dielectrics for the IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation (October 2020). The deadline for the submission of the manuscripts is 30 December 2019. In accordance with IEEE policy, papers that have been published in any Conference proceedings cannot be republished. Therefore, authors of the 2019 IEEE ICDL were strongly advised to significantly expand and enhance their conference paper version prior to submission to this Special Issue of the IEEE TDEI.
It was announced that the next IEEE International Conference on Dielectric Liquids will take place in June or July 2021 at the University of Seville (Spain) chaired by Prof. Pedro A. Vasquez.
Prof. Massimo Pompili and Dr. Luigi Calcara
