Rice alum earns national honor for achievements

The former president of Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs and current chief scientist at Lucent, Netravali was cited for his ”pioneering contributions that transformed television from analog to digital, enabling numerous integrated circuits, systems and services in broadcast television, cable television, direct broadcast satellite, high-definition television (HDTV) and multimedia over the Internet; and for technical expertise and leadership, which have kept Bell Labs at the forefront in communications technology.”

The National Medal of Technology honors men and women who embody the spirit of American innovation and have advanced the nation’s global competitiveness. The medal recognizes ground-breaking contributions that help commercialize technologies, create jobs, improve productivity and stimulate the nation’s growth and development. The medal, the nation’s highest honor for achievement in technology, was established by Congress in 1980 and is administered by the Department of Commerce. President Bush will present the medal at a White House ceremony later this year.

”This honor highlights what we at Lucent have known for many years: that Arun Netravali is a brilliant scientist,” commented Lucent Chief Executive Officer Patricia Russo. ”His contributions are playing a significant role in today’s digital video revolution.”

The compression technology Netravali developed is essential to digital video systems used in cable and network television, HDTV, video telephones and videoconferencing systems. In addition, his work is the basis for systems that use streaming video over the Internet, Web sites that store compressed video and multimedia computers.

Netravali received his undergraduate degree in 1967 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in 1969 and 1970, respecively, from Rice, all in electrical engineering.