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News — ROLLA, Mo. – If a home in the United States has rooftop solar panels, there’s a strong likelihood that Dr. Patrick Chapman, a Missouri University of Science and Technology alumnus, played a role in developing its power inverters. In recognition of his contributions, he was recently elected to the . 

“I feel deeply honored and grateful to be elected to the academy,” Chapman says. “The opportunities I’ve had throughout my career, along with the incredible people I’ve worked with, have been crucial to my success. As a new member, I intend to continue promoting the field of engineering and helping others see how our work can make a real difference in the world.” 
 
Chapman, who earned two degrees from Missouri S&T — a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1996 and a master’s degree in the same field a year later — says it was during his time at S&T that his passion for power electronics was first sparked. 
 
“When I first came to S&T, I was actually interested in computer science, but by my sophomore year, I realized the hands-on work electrical engineers do with hardware was a better fit for me,” says Chapman, a Centralia, Missouri, native who now lives in Austin, Texas. “I was able to conduct undergraduate research focused on power electronics, and my research advisor, Dr. Scott Sudhoff, encouraged me continue this research as a graduate student.” 
 
After earning his two S&T degrees, Chapman followed Sudhoff to Purdue University, where Sudhuff had accepted a faculty position. In 2000, Chapman defended his dissertation titled “Formulation and Implementation of Optimal Control Strategies for Variable Waveshape Drives” and earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.  
 
He next accepted a faculty position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is where his focus shifted more to the solar side of the electrical engineering world. 
 
“When I was an advisor for the Solar Decathlon team, our group kept running into challenges with the size, efficiency and reliability of inverters — especially string inverters that struggled with uneven sunlight across panels,” he says. “And I then started focusing more on solving those issues.” 
 
Around 2006, Chapman and his colleagues pivoted the SmartSpark Energy Systems battery management startup company that Champan co-founded in 2003 to instead develop micro-inverters attached to solar panels that convert direct current (DC) power from the panels into alternating current (AC) for homes.   
 
At first, his role with this company, which was eventually renamed Solarbridge Technologies, was part-time. But in 2010, he left his Illinois professorship and took on a full-time role.  
 
Since then, he has continued to work in industry roles, and he is currently CEO of Stormentum — a startup he recently founded to develop solutions for combining battery storage with solar power systems. 
 
To go along with this NAE membership, Chapman has several other accolades to his name, including approximately 75 U.S. patents, over 100 academic papers published, Fellow status for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and membership in Missouri S&T’s Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 
 
He says his time at Missouri S&T helped set the wheels in motion for these accomplishments.  
 
“Missouri S&T is a phenomenal school for students who are eager to learn and have a maker mentality,” he says. “When I came to Rolla from my small town, until then, I was a bookworm and didn’t have much hands-on experience.  
 
“As an S&T student, I gained so many valuable experiences and an education with an amazing return on investment.”  
 
The National Academy of Engineering has fewer than 2,500 members. In October 2025, Chapman will be officially inducted as a member, along with 127 other U.S. engineers and 22 international members. 
 
For more information about Missouri S&T’s electrical engineering programs, visit . 

About Missouri S&T
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit  .