Baliga Receives Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Dr. Jayant Baliga has received the Dr. John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award from NC State’s Office of Technology Transfer.
November 22, 2013 
NC State ECE
Jay Baliga and some of his many patents and awards. PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Dr. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University and Director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center (PSRC), has received the Dr. John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award from NC State’s Office of Technology Transfer.
Dr. Baliga has authored/edited 18 books and over 500 scientific articles and has been granted 120 U.S. Patents. The IEEE has recognized him numerous times – most recently with the ‘Lamme Medal’ at Whitehall Palace in London. Scientific American magazine included him among the ‘Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution’ when commemorating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. He also invented, developed and commercialized the Insulated Gate Bipolar Trannsistor (IGBT) at GE. The IGBT is extensively used in the consumer, industrial, lighting, transportation, medical, renewable energy, and other sectors of the economy. It has enabled enormous reduction of gasoline and electrical energy use, resulting in huge cost savings to consumers, and reduction of world-wide carbon dioxide emissions.
In October of 2011, Dr. Baliga received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest form of recognition given to an engineer by the United States Government, from President Obama at the White House. Dr. Baliga was also one of six recipients of the North Carolina Award for Science, given by Governor Bev Purdue in October of 2012.
Dr. Baliga has long been a serial entrepreneur, founding four companies in the Triangle Area. In addition, Dr. Baliga’s inventions have been commercialized by numerous companies including Vishay Siliconix, Infineon and Cree.
The Dr. John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award is named in honor of Dr. John S. Risley who was a NC State faculty inventor, educator, entrepreneur and founder of WebAssign. Dr. Baliga is the first recipient of the award.
