Nirmal received his BE in Electrical Engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University (M.S.U), Baroda, India. He completed his ME in Electrical Engineering with specialization in High Voltage Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. After a decade of professional engineering and lecturing in India he moved to United States where he completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University. Since 2004 he has been based in New Zealand. He has held several professional, teaching and research positions in India, USA and in New Zealand. Presently, he is a tenured Associate Professor at Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of University of Auckland. His expertise involves smart grids, power system analysis, protective relaying & optimisation in the context of electricity markets and integration of DG/renewable sources into electricity networks. His research interests span power systems in the context of protective relaying, electricity markets, voltage security, blackouts and resilience. His current focus is towards integration of distributed/renewable energy sources to electricity system with emphasis on protection (IEC 61850, SPS, WAPS), energy markets (block-chain), innovations (Micro-grid, Storage, EV & PV integration, cyber-resilience, digital twins, machine learning and AI), low-carbon transitions and energy policy. He serves in various capacities for IEEE New Zealand North Section, IEEE Power and Energy Society and is Secretary for CIGRE New Zealand National Committee. He is actively engaged towards University of Auckland’s outreach with power system stakeholders, internationally and in New Zealand across all sectors (generators, distributors, retailers, metering, transmission system operator, regulatory bodies, consultancies, vendors, Electricity Engineering Association etc).