Victor Lawrence
Batchelor Chair Professor of Engineering, Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering
Director of the Center for Intelligent Networked Systems
Stevens Institute of Technology
Chairman of Baharicom Holding Co Ltd
Dr. Lawrence has been a key proponent of R&D globalization and is championing the effort to bring fiber optic connectivity to Africa. At Stevens, he serves as Director of the Center for Intelligent Networked Systems, and Associate Dean for Special Programs. 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 Labs.
He has worked in the information technology and communications R&D field for over thirty years. He retired as Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology - Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, where he managed an R&D staff of over 500 technologists responsible for the development of technologies for worldwide communications networks. During his career, his personal research activities provided major contributions to gigabit, photonic, and wireless networking, signal processing, modem technology, digital techniques, ATM switching and protocols, DSL, speech and audio coding, among other areas. His application of digital signal processing to data communications in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to many significant advances in high-speed transmission over copper lines (e.g., voiceband modems and DSL), and to the creation of Globespan Semiconductor Inc..He was an early champion of VLSI for ATM/IP networks and helped to create two generations of ATM/IP silicon, including the industry leading ATLANTA ATM/IP chip set. Victor has spun off several ventures, e.g., ellemedia, Lucent Digital Video, Lucent Digital Radio. He did the pioneering work and led the development of the Studio Encoder and the receiver chip-set for the Sirius Radio Satellite system.
Dr. Lawrence has also been the recipient of many professional awards and honors such as; the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, 2007, 2004 IEEE Award in International Communications, 2003 IEEE Millennium Medal, 2000, Emmy Award for HDTV Grand Alliance Standard, 1997, Black Engineer for Outstanding Technical Contributions, 1995, Fellow of AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1992, Fellow of IEEE, 1987, 1986 University of California at Berkeley, Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series, 1984 J. Harry Karp Best Paper Award at Interface '84, and the 1981 Gullemin-Cauer Prize Award, IEEE Circuits & Systems Society.
Dr. Lawrence was a member of former South African President, Mr. Mbeki’s international advisory group on ICT, and also serves as Chairman of the Broadband Advisory Committee to the South African Government. He is also on the Board of Telkom South Africa.