Newton Bretas received the B.Sc. from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 1970 and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Campinas in 1975. In 1981 he received a PhD degree from the University of Missouri. He is currently a Full Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, SP, Brazil. His research interests include power systems state estimation, nonlinear controls and reliability optimization.