Veena Misra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Professor and ASSIST Center Director, is one of five recipients of the Holladay Medal for Excellence. The Holladay Medal for Excellence recognizes members of the faculty whose careers have demonstrated outstanding achievement and sustained impact in research, teaching, or extension and engagement. This award is considered to be the highest honor bestowed by NC State and the university’s Board of Trustees.
The award was named in honor of Alexander Quarles Holladay, NC State’s first professor of history and its first president. The NC State Board of Trustees reviews nominations that are selected by its University Affairs Committee in consultation with the Holladay Medal for Excellence Nomination Committee and the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. The Board of Trustees may then select from zero to five recipients in any given year. Honorees receive an engraved medal and framed certificate and will be honored at NC State’s spring commencement ceremony on May 7.
Misra received her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from NC State. Her research focuses on physical electronics, photonics and magnetics; power electronics and power systems; electronic energy systems packaging; and power semiconductor devices.
Under her leadership, NC State won an NSF Engineering Research Center on ASSIST. Through her role as director of the ERC on ASSIST, Misra is highly effective in building a community of faculties from many universities who work together with common research, education, and technical goals and are supported by a partnership with leaders in the industry. Her most important contributions to engineering education come from the culture she has established through ASSIST and her other work.
She has enabled students to gain a rich interdisciplinary research experience, capped off by experience in designing and building innovative technology. In this capacity, Misra has provided students with a pathway to fulfilling engineering careers in academia and industry. She has also made significant advances in the area of wide bandgap devices, metal electrodes, and high-K dielectrics for CMOS applications for which she also received the IEEE Fellow citation in 2012. Misra’s work in hybrid molecular-silicon memories is also noteworthy since she demonstrated fundamentally new directions with the convergence of solid-state devices and organic chemistry. The total funding with Misra either as a PI or a mission-critical Co-PI exceeds $59 million.
Chancellor Randy Woodson will recognize the awardees during an in-person Celebration of Faculty Excellence on May 4. Congratulations to Veena Misra for being honored with the prestigious Holladay Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence.