Richard Byron Beddingfield was born in Atlanta, GA in 1990. He started research work with Dr. Subhashish Bhattacharya at North Carolina State University as an Undergraduate Research Scholar in 2012. He focused on active filters after completing a three semester CO-OP rotation with Nucor Steel Hertford, NC where he fell in love with high power, high voltage converters after seeing the capabilities of the DC and AC electric arc furnaces. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, and the University Honors Program from North Carolina State University in 2013. He then completed his Professional Science Masters in Electric Power Systems Engineering with a Renewable Electric Energy Systems Certificate in 2014. During his PhD work, he visited Carnegie Mellon and the US Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory as an ORISE Postgraduate Fellow. There he gained an appreciation and passion for magnetic materials and components. He completed his PhD research in magnetic materials and components for high power, medium frequency power converters in the summer of 2018. His current research interests are to leverage the intersection of material science and electrical engineering to improve magnetic component designs to meet the challenging demands of modern wide bandgap power electronics converters.
