Umesh K. Mishra is a professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

(1990–Present). He is the CTO, co-founder and board member of

Transphorm Transphorm Inc. ASDAQ:TGANis a semiconductor company focused on producing transistors made from gallium nitride (GaN) for use in switched-mode power supplies. It is headquartered in Goleta, California, close to the University of California at San ...

, founded in 2007 and the first company to deliver

gallium nitride Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV affords it ...

(GaN)

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

products for high efficiency power conversion technologies. Prior to Transphorm, he co-founded Nitres Inc. in 1996, which was the first company to develop GaN

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

and transistors.

Career

Mishra earned a B.Tech degree from the

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was ...

, India in 1979. He went on earn his M.S. in Electrical Engineering at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...

in 1981 and Ph.D. at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1984 and served as a principal staff engineer at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

. Mishra was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009 for his contributions to the development of gallium nitride electronics and other high-speed, high-power semiconductor electronic devices. Mishra’s company

was selected by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

as a 2013 Technology Pioneer for its innovations in GaN technology, the solutions from which can cut total world electrical energy waste by up to 10 percent. Mishra has over 1,000 publications and is a fellow of IEEE, member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

, and a recipient of both the IEEE David Sarnoff Award and the ISCS Quantum Device Award. Mishra ranks among the top 1% on the most highly cited researchers in the world and has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 100. He was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2015.

Awards and honors

*Donald W. Whittier Chair in Electrical Engineering, UCSB 2013 *

Heinrich Welker Heinrich Johann Welker (9 September 1912 in Ingolstadt – 25 December 1981 in Erlangen) was a German theoretical and applied physicist who invented the "transistron", a transistor made at Westinghouse independently of the first successful transist ...

Award for "The Development of GaN High Power Electronics from Conception, Education to Commercialization," International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors, 2012 *Quantum Device Award, ISCS 2007 * IEEE David Sarnoff Award, 2007 *Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kanpur, 2006 *Young Scientist of the Year Award, International GaAs Symposium 1992 *NSF, Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1989

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishra, Umesh Cornell University alumni 1957 births Living people