Rate My Professor B. Jayant Baliga

B. Jayant Baliga is the Progress Energy Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University and Director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center. He received his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1969, M.S. in 1971, and Ph.D. in 1974, both in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Baliga spent 15 years at the General Electric Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, where he managed the power device group, achieved the rank of Coolidge Fellow, and invented the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). This device has transformed power electronics, enabling efficient high-voltage switching in sectors including consumer products, industrial applications, lighting, transportation, medicine, and renewable energy, thereby reducing global energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Baliga joined North Carolina State University in 1988 as a Full Professor, founded the Power Semiconductor Research Center in 1991, and was promoted to Distinguished University Professor in 1997. His research focuses on power semiconductor devices and power electronics. He has authored or edited 18 books, including Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices (2008), The IGBT Device: Device Physics, Design, and Applications (2015), Silicon Carbide Power Devices (2006), and Advanced High Voltage Power Device Concepts (2011), published over 500 scientific articles, and holds 120 U.S. patents. His achievements include election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993, IEEE Fellow in 1983, IEEE Medal of Honor in 2014, IEEE Lamme Medal in 1999, National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011, National Inventors Hall of Fame induction in 2016, and the Millennium Technology Prize in 2024. Baliga also founded companies such as Silicon Wireless Corporation, MicroOhm & Giant Semiconductor Corporation, and Silicon Semiconductor Corporation.