Dr Gupta
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ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, an Indian American scientist who is director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at North Carolina State University, is being awarded Russia's top technology award in recognition of his work in energy management, which has brought about huge increase in efficiency and major savings.
The award will presented to Prof. Baliga and Shuji Nakamura June 19 by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony here.
Nakamura, a Nobel Laureate, is being recognized for his work on blue light emitting diodes. In Russia, the Global Energy Prize is known as the electronics equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Baliga invented the digital switch, or the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, while working at the General Electrical Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, in 1983. The IGBT switches energy hundreds of thousands of times a second, raising the efficiency of any equipment manifold.
"Every equipment from your refrigerator to lights to motor vehicles has the need to use energy efficiently. If you take away the IGBT today, almost everything will come to a standstill," Baliga told a visiting IANS correspondent on the eve of receiving the award.
Scientific American magazine called him among the “Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution,” and President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest form of recognition given to an engineer by the United States government, in October 2011. (See India-West’s earlier story here: http://bit.ly/1MPIzss) He is also the 2014 recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor, a rare distinction.
Baliga, who teaches at NCSU as a “Distinguished University Professor,” said that his invention combines two streams of electronics and electrical engineering and has possibly saved the world around $24 trillion by raising efficiency, according to one detailed calculation.
"I got zero out of it. But then I did it all for humanity."
Of course, says Baliga, he did make some money when he started three companies, but these were financed by venture capitalists who exited with enormous profits at the right time.
He says every motor today is at least 40 percent more efficient, the light bulb like the CFL better by almost 75 percent, and a motor vehicle saves over 10 percent fuel because of his invention. He has written 19 books and over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Baliga graduated from IIT Madras before going to the U.S. for his M.S. and Ph.D., which degrees he received in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, following which he joined GE, where he spent over 15 years.
After his switch was invented, several of his colleagues told him that it would not work, and many scientists said he would fall "flat on his face.” But he said it stood the test of time.
The chairman of GE at that time, Jack Welch, flew down especially to meet him when he heard what it could do. GE used the switch in several pieces of equipment it sold, including medical devices.
A U.S. citizen since 2000, Baliga does not travel to his home country much, especially after his parents and the parents of his wife passed away. But, he says, an invention like his is unlikely in India, because it needs a huge research infrastructure to be in place from universities to industries.
He feels that India has a potential which has not been fully used, although in software "it has made great strides.”
Could a Nobel be on its way in the future? "I used to say no way," but with so many recognitions and this "global prize where I am being feted with a Nobel Laureate, who knows,” he says. His regret, though, is that India does not know much about him.
"Top scientists that I meet always ask me, why has India not recognized your achievement?" And with characteristic modesty, Baliga told IANS, "I tell them that perhaps my country does not know about what I did."
According to his bio on the NCSU Web site, Baliga is an internationally recognized expert on power semiconductor devices. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. At GE, he was bestowed the highest scientific rank of Coolidge Fellow.
Baliga joined NCSU in 1988 as a full professor; among his many NCSU honors, he was the recipient of the 1998 O. Max Gardner Award given by the North Carolina University Board of Governors to the one person within the 16 constituent universities who has made “the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race”; and the 2011 Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence, the highest honor at NCSU from the Board of Trustees.
The professor 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. He is also the recipient of the North Carolina Award for Science from Governor Purdue in October 2012.
(Hardev Sanotra is in St. Petersburg at the invitation of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.)
Indian American Scientist Awarded Russia’s Top Energy Prize - India West: Global Indian
The award will presented to Prof. Baliga and Shuji Nakamura June 19 by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony here.
Nakamura, a Nobel Laureate, is being recognized for his work on blue light emitting diodes. In Russia, the Global Energy Prize is known as the electronics equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Baliga invented the digital switch, or the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, while working at the General Electrical Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, in 1983. The IGBT switches energy hundreds of thousands of times a second, raising the efficiency of any equipment manifold.
"Every equipment from your refrigerator to lights to motor vehicles has the need to use energy efficiently. If you take away the IGBT today, almost everything will come to a standstill," Baliga told a visiting IANS correspondent on the eve of receiving the award.
Scientific American magazine called him among the “Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution,” and President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest form of recognition given to an engineer by the United States government, in October 2011. (See India-West’s earlier story here: http://bit.ly/1MPIzss) He is also the 2014 recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor, a rare distinction.
Baliga, who teaches at NCSU as a “Distinguished University Professor,” said that his invention combines two streams of electronics and electrical engineering and has possibly saved the world around $24 trillion by raising efficiency, according to one detailed calculation.
"I got zero out of it. But then I did it all for humanity."
Of course, says Baliga, he did make some money when he started three companies, but these were financed by venture capitalists who exited with enormous profits at the right time.
He says every motor today is at least 40 percent more efficient, the light bulb like the CFL better by almost 75 percent, and a motor vehicle saves over 10 percent fuel because of his invention. He has written 19 books and over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Baliga graduated from IIT Madras before going to the U.S. for his M.S. and Ph.D., which degrees he received in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, following which he joined GE, where he spent over 15 years.
After his switch was invented, several of his colleagues told him that it would not work, and many scientists said he would fall "flat on his face.” But he said it stood the test of time.
The chairman of GE at that time, Jack Welch, flew down especially to meet him when he heard what it could do. GE used the switch in several pieces of equipment it sold, including medical devices.
A U.S. citizen since 2000, Baliga does not travel to his home country much, especially after his parents and the parents of his wife passed away. But, he says, an invention like his is unlikely in India, because it needs a huge research infrastructure to be in place from universities to industries.
He feels that India has a potential which has not been fully used, although in software "it has made great strides.”
Could a Nobel be on its way in the future? "I used to say no way," but with so many recognitions and this "global prize where I am being feted with a Nobel Laureate, who knows,” he says. His regret, though, is that India does not know much about him.
"Top scientists that I meet always ask me, why has India not recognized your achievement?" And with characteristic modesty, Baliga told IANS, "I tell them that perhaps my country does not know about what I did."
According to his bio on the NCSU Web site, Baliga is an internationally recognized expert on power semiconductor devices. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. At GE, he was bestowed the highest scientific rank of Coolidge Fellow.
Baliga joined NCSU in 1988 as a full professor; among his many NCSU honors, he was the recipient of the 1998 O. Max Gardner Award given by the North Carolina University Board of Governors to the one person within the 16 constituent universities who has made “the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race”; and the 2011 Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence, the highest honor at NCSU from the Board of Trustees.
The professor 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. He is also the recipient of the North Carolina Award for Science from Governor Purdue in October 2012.
(Hardev Sanotra is in St. Petersburg at the invitation of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.)
Indian American Scientist Awarded Russia’s Top Energy Prize - India West: Global Indian
