Dean Emeritus Masnari honored with portrait unveiling

Family and friends of Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean emeritus and distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, joined faculty and staff in Engineering Building II on March 18 to celebrate Masnari’s contributions to NC State and see for the first time a portrait created in his honor.

The painting, created by the artist Ned Bittinger, will hang in the dean’s conference room in Page Hall alongside portraits of other former College of Engineering deans. Several current and former NC State faculty and staff members spoke at the unveiling ceremony, including Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering; Dr. Warwick Arden, NC State provost; and Dr. Larry K. Monteith, former chancellor and dean of engineering.

Masnari joined NC State in 1979 as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 1988 he became the founding director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center on Advanced Electronic Materials Processing (AEMP) and the SEMATECH Center of Excellence on Advanced Single Wafer Processing. AEMP was the first NSF Engineering Research Center awarded to NC State. Masnari was appointed dean of the College of Engineering in 1996 and served in that position until 2006, when he returned to the electrical and computer engineering department.

During Masnari’s tenure as dean, the College experienced major growth in enrollment, research funding, facilities and private financial support for scholarships and professorships. This growth included the opening of three new buildings on Centennial Campus, the establishment of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering with UNC-Chapel Hill, significant growth in both undergraduate and graduate enrollment, the doubling of research expenditures, a quadrupling of scholarship funding, and the naming of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the first named academic department in the history of NC State.

Masnari also instituted an aggressive recruiting program. The quality of entering freshmen improved, 112 new faculty members were hired, and national recognitions by NSF tripled. The College and two faculty members received three prestigious Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). In addition, a novel orientation program for new faculty was initiated, four new centers and institutes were created, and a number of other major research initiatives began. Programs and opportunities for minorities and women also increased significantly, including the appointment of the first woman center director and the first woman associate dean.

Masnari received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.