Video tribute honors Baliga, winner of the NC Award for Science

The NC Department of Cultural Resources has produced a video tribute to Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, the 2012 winner of the NC Award for Science. Baliga is Distinguished University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at North Carolina State University.

Baliga invented, developed and commercialized 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 that needs 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. He has been listed among the “Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution” by Scientific American.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1993, Baliga holds more than 120 US patents and is an author of 18 books and more than 550 publications. He joined the NC State faculty in 1988.