Dr. K. L. Murty, Professor and Director of Graduate Programs of Nuclear Engineering Department (and Professor jointly with Materials Science & Engineering) is appointed as Progress Energy Distinguished Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Murty joined NC State University in Aug 1981 following industrial experience at Westinghouse Research Center and Lynchburg Research Center of Babcock & Wilcox Co. Prior to that, he was an AINSE Research Fellow in the University of Newcastle (1972-75) and Research Metallurgist in Inorganic Materials Research Division (IMRD) in Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) at the University of California, Berkeley (1970-72). He obtained his PhD in Applied Physics and Materials Science in 1970 from Cornell University following MS there in 1967. Prior to coming to USA in 1964, he attended Andhra University in Vishakhapatnam, India where he completed his B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. in Physics with 1^st rank in 1962 and 1963 respectively. He received many honors and awards for academic achievements during high school (M.H. School, Anakapalle), college (1957-58 – A.M.A. Lingamurty College, Anakapalle) and university: Lingamurthy Memorial Prize (1956, 1957, 1958), G.N. Murthy Memorial Medal (1958), Sripathi Medal (1962), S.B.P.V. Rao Memorial Prize (1962), Metcalfe Medal (1963) and Kothari Prize (1963).

Following his faculty appointment at NC State University in 1981, he received DAAD Fellowship (1987) in Germany, Alcoa Foundation Research Achievement Award (1988) at NC State, Gledden Senior Visiting Fellowship (1992) in Australia, and ANS Mishima Award (1993) for outstanding research in nuclear materials and fuels. He is a fellow of the American Society for Metals International and the American Nuclear Society. He is a life fellow and Honorary Member of the Indian Institute of Metals. He served as the Program Director of Metals Research in the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation on their IPA program during 2001-03. His recent doctoral students received the ANS Mark Mills Award for outstanding research paper from doctoral thesis: Dr. Ahmad Alsabbagh in 2014 (PhD, Nuclear Engineering) and Dr. Boopathy Kombaiah in 2015 (PhD, Materials Science and Engineering).

Murty is author/co-author of 326 technical papers and is a co-author of a text book on ‘Introduction to Nuclear Materials,’ published by Wiley & Sons. During the last 3 decades, he organized a number of technical symposia at the annual meetings of ASM, TMS and ANS. During his sabbatical at the Mechanical Engineering department of the Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam in 1987, he was instrumental in getting funds from the University Grants Commission of India for a separate Metallurgical Engineering department along with a new building and a number of faculty members at the Andhra University. Starting in March 2001, Dr. Murty instituted two awards in the newly established Metallurgical Engineering Department: (1) Lingamurty Gold Medal for Best student in Metallurgy, and (2) Kalaprapoorna Subbaraju Memorial Scholarship for Best upcoming senior, Metallurgy, in Andhra University.

He and his wife, Ratnaveni instituted Murty scholarship in the College of Engineering at NCSU in 2012 given to outstanding freshman in Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. A mini-symposium on ‘Creep, Deformation, Texture, Nano and Nuclear Materials,’ was held in his honor during the Plasticity2016 conference in Big Island, Hawaii. In addition, a symposium in his honor on ‘Creep and Deformation of Advanced Materials,’ is scheduled during the TMS Annual Meeting in Feb 27 – Mar 2, 2017 in San Diego, CA.