MSU engineering chair honors retired high voltage lab director

Contact: Phil Hearn

The establishment of a new endowed chair at Mississippi State honors Paul B. Jacob, founder and longtime director of the university's high voltage engineering program of study, research and testing.

MSU alumnus James Worth Bagley established the Paul B. Jacob Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering to honor Jacob for his outstanding commitment and service to the university and the engineering profession.

Bagley College of Engineering officials announced the endowment during a recent dinner attended by Jacob, Bagley, MSU president Charles Lee, engineering dean A. Wayne Bennett, members of the Dean's Development Council, and electrical and computer engineering department head Jim Harden. Jacob, Bagley and Harden were presented with commemorative medallions recognizing establishment of the chair.

Jacob received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MSU in 1944, then spent two years in uranium isotope separation research for Tennessee Eastman Corp. in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He joined the MSU electrical engineering faculty in 1946 and subsequently earned a master's degree from Northwestern University in 1948.

Returning again to his alma mater, Jacob began developing a high voltage engineering program. A modest-sized high voltage laboratory was established with the 1950 construction of the Patterson Engineering Building. In 1977, a larger and better-equipped lab later was included as a part of the Simrall Electrical Engineering Building.

Jacob was promoted to professor of electrical engineering in 1956 and became associate head of the electrical engineering department in 1962. He served as director of the high voltage engineering program until his retirement in 1988.

Bagley and his wife Jean donated $25 million to Mississippi State in 2002 to greatly expand the teaching and research strengths of the university's engineering college, which was named in James Bagley's honor. A graduate of Jackson's Forest Hill High School, Bagley subsequently earned a bachelor's degree in 1961 and a master's degree in 1966 from MSU, both in electrical engineering.

Bagley is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Lam Research Corp., a Fremont, Calif.-based company that is a global supplier of silicon wafer processing systems used in semiconductor manufacture. The MSU engineering college's 1994 alumnus of the year, he earlier established the James W. Bagley Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering.