Loi Lei Lai graduated from Aston University in Birmingham with a BSc and a PhD. He was awarded a DSc by City University London. He is also an honrorary graduate of City University. In 1984, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at Staffordshire Polytechnic. From 1986 to 1987, he was a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellow to both GEC Alsthom Turbine Generators Ltd and the Engineering research Centre. He is currently Head of Energy Systems Group and Chair in Electrical Engineering at City University London. In the last decade, Professor Lai has authored/co-authored 200 technical publications. He has also written a book entitled Intelligent System Applications in Power Engineering - Evolutionary Programming and Neural Networks and, in 2001, edited the book Power System Restructuring and Deregulation - Trading, Performance and Information Technology, both published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. He was award the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and won the IEEE Power Engineering Society, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (UKRI), chapter, Outstanding Engineer Award in 2003. In 1995, he received a high-quality paper prize from the International Association of Desalination, USA and in 2006 he was awarded a Prize paper by the IEEE Power Generation Committee. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology).
Among his professional activities, he is a Founder and was the Conference Chairman of the international Conference on Power Utility Deregulation, Restructuring man of the International Conference on Power Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT) 2000, co-sponsored by the IEEE (now IET) and Power Technologies (DRPT) 2000, co-sponsored by the IEE (now IET) and IEEE. He reviews grant proposals regularly for the EPSRC, Australian Research Council and Hong Kong research Grant Council. In 2001, he was invited by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers to be Chairman of an Accreditation Visit Team to accredit the BEng (Hons) degree in Electrical Engineering. Since 2005, Professor Lai has been invited as a judge for the Power/Energy Category in the IET Innovation in Engineering Awards. He was also Student Recruitment Office of the IEEE UKRI Section Executive Committee. He is a member of the Intelligent Systems Subcommittee in Power System Analysis, Computing and Economic Committee, IEEE Power Engineering Society; a Member of the Executive Team of the Power Trading and Control Technical and Professional Network, IET; an Editor of the IEE Proceedings - Generation, Distribution and Generation (now IET Generation, Distribution and Generation); an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems published by Elsevier Science Ltd, UK; International Advisor, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) Transactions and an Editorial Board Member of the European Transactions on Electrical Power published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. He was a research Professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, is also Visiting professor at Southeast University Nanjing and Guest Professor at Fudan University, Shanghai. He has also been invited to deliver keynote addresses and plenary speeches to several major international conferences sponsored by the IET and IEEE.