Dr. Annie Antón

The research of Annie Antón, assistant professor of software engineering in the Department of Computer Science, focuses on methods and tools to support the specification of complete, correct behavior of software systems used in environments that pose risks of loss as a consequence of failures and misuse. This includes Web-based and e-commerce systems in which the security of personal and private information is particularly vulnerable.

To this end, she has developed a leadership role in research, education and outreach with her three current initiatives.

Dr. Antón is the founder and director of ThePrivacyPlace.org, a research group of students and faculty at North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is cofounder of the Annual Symposium on Requirements Engineering for Information Security (SREIS) and coordinated NC State’s successful application for a National Security Agency Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. Dr. Antón was named an NSF Career Award winner in 2000 and a Computing Research Association Digital Government Fellow in 2002.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center, is an internationally recognized expert on power semiconductor devices. He has spent his career finding ways to improve such devices.

Whenever you flip a switch, you are using a power switch invented by Baliga. The Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is a device that saves significant energy and controls power flow in commercial and industrial power systems. Widely manufactured around the world, it is found in many products, including air conditioners, electric cars, industrial and household appliances and portable defibrillators.

A prolific inventor, Baliga has received more than 100 patents. His inventions include a semiconductor made of silicon carbide that is more efficient than the IGBT and a silicon semiconductor designed to make the power supply to computer microprocessors more efficient.

Baliga is the founding director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center, an international, industry-supported center established at NC State in 1991 for research in the area of power semiconductor devices and high voltage integrated circuits. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He joined NC State in 1988 as a professor and was appointed Distinguished University Professor in 1997.

For more information about Dr. Baliga's research, see the story at http://www.ncsu.edu/featured-stories/innovation-discovery/april-2008/carbon-footprint/index.php.

Dr. Donald Bitzer

Dr. Donald L. Bitzer, Distinguished University Research Professor of Computer Science at NC State University, won an Emmy in October 2002 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his efforts in advancing television technology.

Dr. Bitzer co-invented the flat plasma display panel in 1964 as an educational aid to help students working in front of computers for long periods of time. Plasma screens do not flicker and are a significant advance in television technology. In an ironic twist, in 1973 the National Academy of Engineering presented Dr. Bitzer with the Vladimir K. Zworykin Award honoring the inventor of the iconoscope, the precursor of the Image Orthicon tube, a vacuum tube used in early television cameras and called “IMMY” — a name feminized to the Emmy.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1974, Dr. Bitzer was designated a National Associate by the National Academies, a group composed of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, in 2002.

(Photo: Herman Lankford)

Dr. Donald Brenner

Dr. Donald W. Brenner, associate professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University, received a 2002 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for his pioneering research in theoretical nanotechnology at the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology held October 11-13 in Bethesda, Maryland.

He also is an associate faculty member in the Department of Chemistry. Before coming to NC State, he was a research scientist in the Theoretical Chemistry Section with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. His research interests include computational materials science and new technologies for materials education. His numerous awards for research include a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (Career) Award in 1995 and the more recent Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award in 2000. See also http://www.ncsu.edu/research/results/vol4/12.html.

(Photo: Herman Lankford)

Tomás Carbonell

Carbonell, triple major, Truman, Marshall, and Park scholar, and a 2002 graduate earning a perfect 4.0 GPA is off to continue his studies at Oxford University.

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For a closer look at this achiever, visit http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/innerviews/carbonell.html.

(Photo: Chethan Pandarinath)

Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette

Aerospace engineering professor Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette has had a long and illustrious professional career at North Carolina State University. Since his arrival in 1970, Dr. DeJarnette has achieved acknowledged excellence as a teacher, researcher, administrator and national leader in aerospace engineering. He has won several teaching awards, including AIAA Outstanding Faculty Advisor Citation in 1973 and 1974, the NC State Outstanding Teacher Award in 1974 and the RJR Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension in 1988. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His research has made him an expert in development of heat-resistant tiles for the space shuttle; in this connection he has been quoted numerous times in the news media.

He has served as director of the Center of Excellence in Hypersonic Aerodynamics at NC State from 1987 to 1992, the Mars Mission Research Center from 1989 to 1993 and the NC Space Grant Consortium from 1994 to the present. He was head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State from 1994 to 1999. Since 1999 he has continued teaching classes in the department and performing research with NASA Langley on developing new methods for calculating heating on advanced aircraft and spacecraft. His long-standing loyalty to NC State and his dedication to his students and to his profession mark him as an Achiever on many levels.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. Edward Grant

Dr. Edward Grant, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center For Robotics and Intelligent Machines (CRIM) at NC State University, and Dr. John F. Muth, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, along with their students have received a U.S. patent for their pipe-crawling robot. The Modular Observation Crawler And Sensing Instrument (MOCASIn) was developed in 1999. The former electrical and computer engineering students named in the patent are Steve Cottle, Jason Cox, and Brian Dessent.

The pipecrawler was a big hit with the media – one of the biggest stories ever to come out of NC State University in the way of media attention – with calls and email messages pouring into the College of Engineering news office from around the world: BBC Radio 5 Live from London, BBC Horizon, BBC Tomorrow’s World, CNN, NBC News, the Discovery Channel, Sony Entertainment Television, Japanese network television news, Disney’s Discover Award Expo at Epcot, Science & Technology News Network, Motion International Canada, Fox National News, ParisMatch, Engineering Magazine of London, KIJK magazine of The Netherlands, Ça M’intéresse magazine of France, Wired, Popular Science, Sensors, New Scientist, National Geographic online, Science Daily online, and countless others.

Dr. Grant, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (ImechE) in the United Kingdom, received his B.Sc. with honors in mechanical engineering from Dundee College of Technology in 1969, his M.Eng. in mechanical engineering (fluid power control) from the University of Sheffield in 1972 and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1999.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. Carol Hall

(Photo: Copyright DeLaRosa Photography)

Dr. Jason Haugh

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. Thom Hodgson

Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, Distinguished University Professor of Industrial Engineering and James T. Ryan Professor of Industrial Engineering and Furniture Manufacturing at North Carolina State University, has received much recognition for his professional achievements. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

In 2004 he received from IIE the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award, which recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves “through contributions to the welfare of mankind in the field of industrial engineering.”

In 2003 he received the Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award from IIE for his significant contributions to the profession through research, publication, extension, administration and teaching innovation in the academic environment.

He is the author or co-author of more than 70 journal articles and book chapters. He serves as director of the Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute, which provides multidisciplinary graduate-level education and practical training opportunities in the theory and practice of integrated manufacturing systems engineering.

His areas of research interest are scheduling, logistics, production and inventory control, manufacturing systems, and applied and military operations research. Hodgson is a former US Army Transportation Corps officer.

(Photo: submitted)

Institute of Industrial Engineers Award Winners

Three professors in the Department of Industrial Engineering received high honors from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) this year.

Dr. Salah E. Elmaghraby, University Professor of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, received the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award. This award is the highest honor presented by IIE and “recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through contributions to the welfare of humankind in the field of industrial engineering.”

Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, the James T. Ryan Professor of Industrial Engineering and Furniture Manufacturing and Distinguished University Professor of Industrial Engineering, received the Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award. The Holzman award is one of the highest honors to be given by IIE and recognizes significant contributions to the profession through research, publication, extension, administration and teaching innovation in the academic environment.

Dr. Russell E. King, professor of industrial engineering, received the IIE Award for Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering. This award acknowledges significant innovative technical contributions to the industrial engineering profession.

All three gentlemen received their awards at the annual IIE conference in May.

(Photos: Elmaghraby and Hodgson, submitted photos; King by Vellie Matthews)

Dr. Robert Kelly

An internationally renowned scholar and authority in the biology and biotechnology of extremophiles, Dr. Robert M. Kelly is the Alcoa Professor of Chemical Engineering at NC State University and director of both the NC State Biotechnology Program and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Graduate Student Biotechnology Training Program. Extremophiles are newly discovered organisms whose enzymes can be used to stimulate gas and oil recovery processes, improve the production of pharmaceuticals, catalyze essential reactions in recombinant DNA technology and create new opportunities in the production of foods and sweeteners.

Dr. Kelly, who joined the College of Engineering faculty in 1992, is exceptionally active in the research community at NC State, including serving as associate vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at NC State for 2001-02. In 2001 Dr. Kelly led an effort to institute a campuswide biotechnology minor for undergraduate students at NC State to complement an existing minor at the graduate level. He holds 10 patents and is author of more than 100 professional publications. Dr. Kelly received the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension in 2003. Recently, Dr. Kelly won the 2004 Marvin Johnson Award from the Biochemical Technology Division of the American Chemical Society in recognition of his outstanding research contributions in microbial and biochemical technology.

Dr. Veena Misra

The research of Dr. Veena Misra, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State University, has garnered national attention on more than one occasion. In addition to receiving a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (Career) Award in February 2001, she received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the US government to young scientists, later that same year.

Dr. Misra has also received an Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Award and an NSF Award for Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education. Her research interests include MOSFET device design, advanced gate stack, CMOS process integration, characterization of thin films, molecular electronics, and quantum computing.

(Photo: submitted photo)

Dr. John Muth

Since joining the College of Engineering faculty in 2000, Dr. John F. Muth, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received marked attention for his research in nanoelectronics and photonics.   In 2002 he received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and in 2003 he was selected as an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator.   In March 2004 he won a merit competition for funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for his proposed research on the fabrication and characterization of wide band gap semiconductor optoelectronic devices and metallic nanostructures used in sensors.

Most recently Dr. Muth was one of 86 engineers who were selected to participate in the 10th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium by the National Academy of Engineering. The three-day event brought together young engineers who are performing novel engineering research and technical work in a variety of disciplines.   The symposium was held September 9-11, 2004, at the National Academies’ Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California.

(Photo: Margaret Hudacko)

Dr. Troy Nagle

Dr. Troy Nagle uniquely boasts both a PhD and MD, a degree combination that has successfully tooled him for his most recent challenge serving as the interim head of the new Department of Biomedical Engineering as of January 2003.

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Read more about Dr. Nagle’s double life: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/innerviews/nagle.html. For more information about the Department of Biomedical Engineering, please visit their website: http://www.bme.ncsu.edu.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. Paul Turinsky

In October 2002 the Department of Energy awarded seven E.O. Lawrence Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of atomic energy. Paul Turinsky, professor and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University, won in the area of nuclear technology.

The ceremony was held in the National Academy of Sciences Auditorium in Washington, DC. Each winner received a gold medal, citation, and $25,000.

Dr. Turinsky is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and has won numerous awards in research and education. Dr. Turinsky joined the NC State faculty in 1980.

(Photo: Stephen Bilyj)

Dr. Turner Whitted

J. Turner Whitted (PhD EE ’78), senior researcher in the Hardware Devices and Graphics Groups at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 in recognition of his work in recursive ray tracing. Dr. Whitted is acknowledged as one of the pioneers in three-dimensional computer graphics. He has invented a number of computer tools and hardware devices. He is associate editor-in-chief of Computer Graphics and Applications for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

(Photo: M.E.H. Hudacko)

Dr. Paul Zia

Dr. Paul Zia, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at NC State University, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a former head of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at NC State. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on concrete structure engineering. In 2006 the American Concrete Institute (ACI) honored Dr. Zia for his lifetime achievements. The celebratory day, March 27, included a special dinner in Zia's honor.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lamme Medal from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence, the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, the ASEE Centennial medallion, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Florida. Dr. Zia joined the NC State faculty in 1961.

The Constructed Facilities Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering established the Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture Series at NC State University. The new series was been established to honor the contributions of Dr. Zia to the civil engineering profession, particularly in the concrete and structural engineering fields.

Dr. Zia’s work in the design and analysis of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures boosted an entire industry. As a consultant, he has tackled problems with several nuclear containment structures, large sports arenas, the Montreal Olympic Stadium, the Miami rapid transit system and the relocation of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)