Veena Misra Named as MC Dean Distinguished University Professor 

Congratulations to Veena Misra for earning the second honorific professorship title MC Dean Distinguished University Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering!

Veena Misra has earned the second honorific professorship title MC Dean Distinguished University Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The title was approved by a committee of distinguished peers, the chancellor, the executive vice chancellor and the provost. College of Engineering Dean, Louis Martin-Vega recommended Misra for the title. 

Endowed professorships are key recruitment tools that help set the College of Engineering apart in its efforts to attract and retain top faculty talent. These endowments provide salary and funds for faculty members’ research activities, which help get new programs off the ground and enrich student experiences. An investment in faculty members is an investment in NC State students, who are the future of engineering.

This endowed professorship is funded by William H. Dean, president and CEO of M.C. Dean, and his father, Marion Casey Dean, retired president and CEO of M.C. Dean. Both family members are NC State electrical engineering alumnus, William graduating in 1988 and Marion in 1967. 

“The impact it makes is significant,” Bill Dean said. “It is a real measure of the University’s competitiveness, and it’s one of the things we can do as a private benefactor to have a direct impact on our own College.”

Bill Dean remembers the influence and support of some of his professors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, especially those who taught math-intensive courses that helped him learn inductive reasoning skills critical to his role leading M.C. Dean.

Headquartered in Tysons, Va., M.C. Dean is a global leader in cyber-physical solutions. Founded in 1949 by Marion Caleb Dean, father of Casey Dean and grandfather of Bill Dean, the company has grown from an electrical specialty contracting business with 55 employees to a billion-dollar company with more than 5,100 employees and 34 offices globally.

M.C. Dean develops cyber-physical solutions across fields for private enterprises, including 80 percent of all Fortune 50 companies, and for almost every federal agency. Employees work on large-scale projects that require the integration of software development and infrastructure design for mission critical facilities, health care, security and more.

“People who learn to integrate software and design and infrastructure, when it comes to our sector, they’re going to be people who lead the industry,” Bill Dean said.

In 2017, they endowed the first M.C. Dean Distinguished Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering which was received by Fred Kish. He always had an interest in academia, but it was the endowed professorship that drew him to NC State.

“This professorship, to me, was table stakes to come to NC State,” he said. “So, without that, I would not have been able to make the transition.”

Kish’s current work is focused on leading the NNF, which is home to a full range of micro- and nano-fabrication capabilities used by companies and universities. He is also leading development of new research initiatives at NC State on semiconductors and is involved in efforts related to the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act, part of the $300 billion America COMPETES Act currently being considered by Congress. He is advising three graduate students and will eventually teach courses on semiconductor optoelectronics and fabrication. In 2021, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

In 2021, they announced the second endowed professorship, that Misra has now received, which capped off the NC State Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign.

Misra is Director of the NSF Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST). She received her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. from NC State University in electrical engineering in 1991, 1992, and 1995, respectively. After working at the Advanced Products Research and Development Laboratories, Motorola Inc. in Austin, TX, she joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1998. 

She has authored or co-authored over 150 papers in the areas of state-of-the-art low-power CMOS devices, power devices, alternative high-mobility substrates, nanoscale magnetics, and energy-harvesting. Misra was the recipient of the 2001 NSF CAREER Award, the 2011 Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement award, and most recently the 2022 Holladay Medal for Excellence. She was also named to serve on the Microsystems Exploratory Council  for Defense Advances Research Research Projects Agency in 2022. 

Misra has been an extraordinary member of our renowned faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and we are so excited to celebrate another career-defining achievement of hers.