PACK POINTS
Picture perfect
Family and friends of Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean emeritus and distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, joined faculty and staff in Engineering Building II on March 18 to celebrate Masnari’s contributions to NC State and see for the first time a portrait created in his honor.
The painting, created by the artist Ned Bittinger, now hangs in the dean’s conference room in Page Hall alongside portraits of other former College of Engineering deans.
Masnari joined NC State in 1979 as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 1988 he became the founding director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center on Advanced Electronic Materials Processing (AEMP) and the SEMATECH Center of Excellence on Advanced Single Wafer Processing. AEMP was the first NSF Engineering Research Center awarded to NC State. Masnari was appointed dean of the College in 1996 and served in that position until 2006, when he returned to the electrical and computer engineering department.
During Masnari’s tenure as dean, the College experienced major growth in enrollment, research funding, facilities and private financial support for scholarships and professorships. This growth included the opening of three new buildings on Centennial Campus, the establishment of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering with UNC-Chapel Hill, and the naming of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the first named academic department in the history of NC State. 