The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is a power electronics technology that converts electrical power between alternating and direct current more efficiently and reliably at high voltages than earlier converter designs, and Marquardt's invention has gone on to underpin industrial-scale power conversion equipment used across energy transmission and heavy industrial applications. The other 2026 winners worked in unrelated fields: Angeliki Triantafyllou (Greece/Sweden) won the Industry category for an enzymatic process used in oat drinks, Franck Zal (France) won the SMEs category for a marine-worm-derived oxygen carrier used to preserve organs and tissue, Adrian Hill (Ireland/UK) won Research for a malaria vaccine, and Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao (China) won both the Non-EPO Countries category and the public-voted Popular Prize for a smart battery recycling process. Two finalists whose inventions were more directly relevant to advanced manufacturing, an Italian team's method for local, rapid production of semiconductor probe cards and a Czech team's needle-free electrospinning technology for industrial-scale nanofibre production, did not win their categories but remain listed among the 2026 finalists.

#Electronics