Contact: Phil Hearn
A Mississippi State electrical engineering professor is the first holder of a new endowed professorship in the university's Bagley College of Engineering.
G. Marshall Molen, an 11-year MSU faculty veteran, recently became the Ergon/Diversified Technology Inc. Distinguished Professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.
The professorship was established last year to provide leadership in electrical and computer engineering education and research, as well as outreach efforts to industrial clients.
A unit of Ergon Inc. of Jackson, Ridgeland-based DTI has become a leader in the industrial and commercial computer industry since its founding in 1971. As a part of one of the largest private corporations in America, DTI develops and fabricates products primarily for communications, telephone, military, aerospace and medical markets.
A recognized authority in power electronics, Molen directs the department's High Voltage Laboratory. He also currently heads defense-related research projects the university is conducting for the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. He served as department head from 1992-2002.
A Greenville, Texas, native, Molen holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Texas Tech University. After working for four years at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., he entered academia at Old Dominion University in 1978. He held several leadership positions--including associate dean for research and graduate studies--at the Virginia school before being named head of the electrical engineering department at Tennessee Technological University in 1987.