In 1993, Baliga was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to power semiconductor devices leading to the advent of smart power technology.
Baliga grew up in Jalahalli, a small village near Bangalore, India. His father, Bantwal Vittal Manjunath Baliga, was one of India's first electrical engineers in the days before independence and founding President of the Indian branch of the Institute of Radio Engineers, which later became the IEEE in India. Baliga's father played pivotal roles in the founding of Indian television and electronics industries.[1][3] During his childhood his father inspired him a lot. Baliga remembers reading IEEE proceeding during his highschool days which were brought by his father to home. He graduated from highschool in 1963.[4]
He worked 15 years at the General Electric Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, then joined North Carolina State University in 1988 as a Full Professor. He was promoted to Distinguished University Professor in 1997. His invention insulated gate bipolar transistor that combines sciences from two streams Electronics engineering and Electrical engineering. This has resulted in cost savings of over $15 trillion for consumers, and is forming a basis for smart grid. Baliga then worked in academic field. He also founded three companies that made products based on semiconductor technologies.[3][5][6]
In 1997, Scientific American magazine included him among the 'Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution' when commemorating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the transistor.[9][10]
In 2014, he was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor, "For the invention, implementation, and commercialization of power semiconductor devices with widespread benefits to society."[12]
In 2015, he received the Global Energy Prize for invention, development and commercialization of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, which is one of the most important innovations for the control and distribution of energy.[5][6][13]
He was the Chief Guest for the 53rd Convocation at IIT Madras held on 22-07-2016. He was awarded Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) in the ceremony.[15]
^Zorpette, Glenn (1997). Rennie, John (ed.). "Fifty Years of Heroes and Epiphanies". Scientific American. 8 (1): 7. ISSN1048-0943. Retrieved 16 January 2017. And it may not be too soon to identify a few new candidates for hero status—people such as the quantum-well wizard Federico Capasso of Lucent Technologies (which includes Bell Labs) and B. Jayant Baliga, the inventor of the IGBT, who describes his transistor in this issue