XIAOHUA XIA obtained his PhD degree at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China, in 1989. He stayed at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow in May 1994 and for two years, followed by  two short visits  to Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France and National University of Singapore during 1996  and 1997, respectively, both as a post-doctoral fellow. He joined the University of Pretoria, South Africa, since 1998, and became a full professor in 2000. He also held a number of visiting positions, as an invited professor at IRCCYN, Nantes, France, in 2001, 2004 and 2005, as a guest professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, and as a Cheung Kong chair professor at Wuhan University, China. He is an IEEE fellow, served as the South African IEEE Section/Control Chapter Chair, as the chair of the Technical Committee of Non-linear Systems, as a member of the Technical Board (both of IFAC). He is an A-rated scientist by the National Research Foundation of South Africa, an elected fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, and an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He has been an Associate Editor of Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II, and the Specialist Editor (Control) of the SAIEE Africa Research Journal. His research interests include: non-linear feedback control, observer design, time-delay systems, hybrid systems, modelling and control of HIV/AIDS, control and handling of heavy-haul trains and energy modelling and optimisation. He is a registered professional engineering by the Engineering Council of South Africa, and a certified measurement and verification professional. He is the director of both the Centre of New Energy Systems at the University of Pretoria and the National Hub for the Postgraduate Programme in Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management.

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