This year marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of Dr. Claude de Tourreil, one of the insulator industry’s most admired and respected contributors. Among other achievements, Claude had a profound and lasting influence on the development and acceptance of composite insulator technology. He was not only my mentor but also a valued colleague in early editions of INMR as well as during INMR WORLD CONGRESS events starting in 1997 (Miami).
In 2009, three years after Claude’s untimely death from leukemia, INMR instituted an award in his memory to honor his achievements and keep his name and memory alive in today’s generation of T&D engineers who might otherwise never know who he was.
Past recipients of this award have included a long list of industry luminaries who earned this accolade for their remarkable contributions to the field. The last recipient (2025), for example, CIGRE President Dr. Konstantin Papailiou, had a productive and influential career in insulators prior to becoming part of CIGRE.
The recipient of this honour for 2026 is someone who shares many of Claude’s personal qualities. He is modest, despite his expertise, he is open to sharing his knowledge, despite the fact that he works for a manufacturer, and he is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in his field, without distraction from seeking fame or attention. And, perhaps fatefully, he and Claude met in 2005 when Claude contributed what would be his final article to INMRm, which covered development of RIP bushings in Sweden.
It is my profound and sincere pleasure to announce that INMR has selected Lars Jonsson of Hitachi Energy to be recipient of the Claude de Tourreil Memorial Award for 2026.
Lars has had over 35 years’ experience working with high voltage bushings, including in design, research & development, engineering solutions, applications and testing. He has also been active developing methodologies and guidelines for condition assessment, including investigation of failures of service-aged AC and DC bushings up to 1200 kV. He has authored numerous articles and conference proceedings on related subjects and since 2013 served as Convenor of the IEC Maintenance Team for bushing standards as well as Chairman of the IEC Technical Committee since 2017.
My first memory of meeting Lars was during one of the lunches at the 2013 INMR WORLD CONGRESS in Vancouver, Canada. He explained at the time that, like insulators, the field of bushings was about to undergo a profound technological shift – away from oil-impregnated (OIP) types to dry types, such as with resin-impregnated cores. To appreciate the changeover he was foreseeing, back then well over 90% of all bushings used worldwide were still OIP. In fact, this technology was so entrenched that it was hard to imagine it could ever be replaced.
Yet Lars was among the early believers in ‘dry bushing’ concepts – much like Claude was one of the first believers in composite insulator technology.
Lars and I have maintained close contact over the years, both professionally and personally. He was speaker at the 2019 INMR WORLD CONGRESS in Tucson and then served as organizer and Chair of specialized Sessions devoted to bushing technologies and service experience at INMR WORLD CONGRESSES in Berlin (2022), Bangkok (2023) and Panama City (2025). He not only helped expertly manage each of these Sessions but also contributed his own expertise in areas such as ‘Impact of Biofouling on Performance of Outdoor Bushing Insulation’.
Earlier this year, Lars showed me some of the latest developments in production of dry bushings at Hitachi Energy’s factory in Ludvika, Sweden before we travelled north to visit its greatly expanded hollow core insulator plant in Piteå.
Everyone who has met him will attest to Lars’ professionalism and dedication to neutrality and objectivity, notwithstanding that he is employed by one of the world’s largest bushing manufacturers. If Claude were alive today, he would see in Lars, a reflection of his own deeply entrenched values – pursuit of knowledge, commitment to excellence – all without distraction from seeking fame or credit.
INMR and its readers worldwide congratulate Lars for this well-deserved honour and express lasting appreciation for his decades of dedication to advancing electrical insulation in bushings.
Lars will be presented his award at the 2027 INMR WORLD CONGRESS next year in Portugal.
Marvin L. Zimmerman
