The North Carolina State University Board of Trustees will award the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence to three faculty members in recognition of their outstanding careers at NC State. The Holladay Medal is the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member by the trustees and the university.

This year’s honorees are Drs. Nino A. Masnari, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Troy Nagle, professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Raymond E. Fornes, professor of physics and associate dean for research in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

The medals will be presented during the university’s Honors Baccalaureate and Celebration of Academic Excellence, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, in the McKimmon Center.

  The Holladay Medal is named for Col. Alexander Quarles Holladay, the university’s first president. It recognizes the contributions of faculty members in teaching, research and service. Winners receive a medal and a framed certificate, and their names are inscribed on a plaque in the NC State Faculty Senate chambers.

Dr. Nino A. Masnari has served NC State for more than 28 years as faculty member, department head, research center director, and dean of the College of Engineering. Highlights of Masnari’s 10-year term as dean of the College of Engineering include substantial growth in undergraduate and graduate enrollments – especially enrollments of minority and female students; a fourfold increase in scholarship funding; a tripling in the number of National Science Foundation CAREER awards by engineering faculty; a tripling in college research funding; a doubling of the college’s endowment; and the implementation of a plan for the transfer of the College of Engineering to the Centennial Campus. During his term as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the department’s undergraduate enrollment doubled and its graduate enrollment tripled. In 2007 he received the Award of Merit from the NC State Alumni Association. A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Masnari’s research interests in semiconductor devices and circuits, electronic materials processing, fabrication technology, ion implantation, microwave solid-state devices and circuits, bipolar magnetic transistors, microwave tubes, electron beams, and plasma physics led to 47 journal articles and more than $60 million in research funding. He has supervised 14 doctoral and 28 master’s degree students.

Dr. Troy Nagle has dedicated 23 years of teaching, research and service to NC State. As founding chair of the joint NC State-UNC Chapel Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, he led the development of the first joint department in the UNC system. During his term of office, the department has achieved an accredited undergraduate biomedical engineering program at NC State and 80 graduate students at NC State and UNC-CH in the department’s joint graduate program. Prior to his work with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nagle was an early leader in the development of the NC State computer engineering curricular program. His research expertise in medical devices and microsensors, digital signal processing, design for testability, and digital control systems has led to more than 60 refereed journal articles, a number of co-authored books, edited volumes, and book chapters, 11 issued and pending patents, more than $4 million in research and instructional funding, and formation of two medical device start-up companies. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), serving as president in 1994 and currently as editor-in-chief of its new IEEE Sensors Journal. He is also a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and a registered professional engineer. He has received the NASA New Technology Award and the IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award for technical contributions to the institute. He has directed eight doctoral and 23 master’s degree students.

Dr. Raymond E. Fornes has served NC State for 38 years as a faculty member and administrator. Under his leadership as associate dean for research in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, research funding increased fourfold to nearly $30 million annually. Fornes serves as the NC State counselor to the Oak Ridge Association of Universities and as the university liaison to Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He initiated the first Undergraduate Research Symposium at NC State. His research and administrative interests have led to off-campus assignments at the American Enka Research Laboratories, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories/California Institute of Technology, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering/Institute of Medicine, and the policy division of the National Research Council. His primary research interest in polymer physics with emphasis on structure and properties of polymers and the influence of environmental factors on polymeric systems has led to more than 120 publications and one edited volume and nearly $8 million in research funding. His awards include the Fiber Society’s Distinguished Achievement in Fiber Science Award. He has supervised 24 Ph.D. students.

Previous ECE award winners include Dr. Michael Littlejohn in 1998 and Dr. John Hauser in 2003.

Originally published in the NC State Bulletin – View Original Article