Baliga to Receive NC’s Highest Civilian Award

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga has been selected to receive the 2012 North Carolina Award for Science, the state’s highest civilian honor.

Baliga, professor of electrical and computer engineering and founding director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at NC State, is one of six people being honored this year. He will receive the award on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

Baliga is recognized internationally for his groundbreaking work in electronics engineering and has been listed among the “Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution” by “Scientific American.”

The professor is known for inventing, developing and commercializing the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), an energy-saving semiconductor switch that controls the flow of power from an electrical energy source to any application needing energy.

IGBT-enabled applications, found in everything from cars and bullet trains to refrigerators and light bulbs, have saved the world’s consumers more than $15 trillion and now help form the basis for the emerging smart grid. The IGBT’s widespread impact earned Baliga the 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. Read more.