VICTOR LAWRENCE

VP, Research and Development, Lucent Technologies

Dr. Victor Lawrence is Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. He leads the development of technologies that go into the most innovative, reliable and cost-effective communications networks for the leading telecommunications service providers. Earlier, he was Director, Advanced Multimedia Communications at Bell Labs, where he was responsible for systems engineering, exploratory development of multimedia signal processing, transmission and switching, including speech and audio coding, modems, broadband transmission, ATM switching and protocols and wireless communication and signal processing. He held a variety of leadership positions in data communications research, digital techniques, and information systems. His application of digital signal processing to data communications in the late 80's and early 90's led to many significant advances, which helped create a global industry that leverages the benefits of high-speed full-duplex data transmission over the public switched telephone network.

Dr. Lawrence played a significant role in the development of every major international voice and modem standard, making high-speed data communication over international networks possible. His work on high-speed transceivers for local loop and for premises applications led to the development of a variety of DSL technologies, many of which are deployed today for broadband services, and also to the creation of GlobespanVirata Inc. He was co-founder of Lucent's digital video business, which has encoders in over 150 television stations and in many broadband networks worldwide. He has been instrumental in other start-ups that used Lucent's technologies, including elemedia and Lucent Digital Radio (now Ubiquity). He has been a key proponent of R&D globalization and is championing the effort to bring fiber optic connectivity to Africa. Prior to joining Bell Labs in 1974, he taught at Kumasi University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and also as a research engineer at General Electric Company in the UK.

Dr. Lawrence is the co-author of four books: "Introduction to Digital Filters", "Tutorials on Modem Communications", "Intelligent Broadband Multimedia Networks", "Design and Engineering of Intelligent Communications Systems." He holds over 20 U.S. and international patents and has over 45 papers in referenced journals and conference proceedings, covering digital signal processing and data communications.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and AT&T Bell Laboratories. For his scientific achievements, Dr. Lawrence has received numerous awards, including the 2004 IEEE Award in International Communication and a 1994 Emmy Award for the HDTV Grand Alliance Standard. He was also the co-recipient of the 1984 J. Harry Karp Best Paper Award and the 1981 Gullemin-Cauer Prize Award.

Dr. Lawrence has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and delivered the Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. He served as the Chairman, IEEE Awards Board in 1994-1995, was Editor-In-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Communications from 1987 to 1991, and a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society from 1990 to 1992. He was also Special Rapporteur on Coding (1982-1984) and on Transmission Impairments (1984) for CCITT (now ITU).

Dr. Lawrence received his undergraduate, masters, and doctorate degrees from the University of London in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Lawrence, his wife, Penny, and two children, Ellen and Nathan, reside in Holmdel, New Jersey. One of the many charitable and educational activities he is involved in is the International Cultural Exchange Center, which he co-founded.