Baliga receives Global Energy Prize

Dr. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and founding director of NC State University’s Power Semiconductor Research Center, joined Dr. Shuji Nakamura, a professor at UC Santa Barbara and a 2014 winner of a Nobel Prize for Physics, as 2015 winners of the Global Energy Prize.

The Global Energy Prize annually honors outstanding achievements in energy research and technology from around the world that are helping address the world’s pressing energy challenges. Baliga traveled to the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia in June to receive the award and a cash prize of 33 million rubles, which is equivalent to $645,000.

Baliga is internationally recognized as an expert on power semiconductor devices. His research led to the creation of the insulated gate bipolar transistor, which has been used in various sectors of the economy and has led to a reduction in gasoline and electrical energy use and an overall reduction in worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

Return to contents or download the Fall/Winter 2015 NC State Engineering magazine.