Lucent Technologies' Chief Scientist Arun Netravali Receives National Medal of Technology From President George W. Bush.

Business/Technology Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 2002

Nation's top technology honor awarded for technical leadership and

pioneering work on digital video and high definition television

Arun Netravali, Lucent Technologies' (NYSE: LU) chief scientist and former president of Bell Labs, today received the U.S. National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush in a ceremony that was televised and webcasted by the White House.

The National Medal of Technology is the highest honor awarded by the President of the United States for technological innovation.

Speaking on the occasion, President Bush said, "Scientists and researchers do vital work. And they oftentimes do it outside the limelight. It's a good thing to shine the light here in the White House. Their influence extends beyond laboratories. It reaches into hospitals and homes and classrooms. And as importantly, your work inspires young Americans who study past scientific breakthroughs in order to chart their own paths of discovery."

Netravali was cited for his "pioneering contributions that transformed TV from analog to digital, enabling numerous integrated circuits, systems and services in broadcast TV, CATV, DBS, HDTV, and multimedia over the Internet; and for technical expertise and leadership, which have kept Bell Labs at the forefront in communications technology."

Netravali is the eighth person to receive the National Medal of Technology for work done at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of parent Lucent Technologies. The first National Medal of Technology presented to an institution was given to Bell Labs in 1985.

The medal, established by Congress in 1980 and administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy, recognizes men and women who embody the spirit of American innovation and have advanced the nation's global competitiveness. The medal recognizes groundbreaking contributions that help commercialize technologies, create jobs, improve productivity and stimulate the nation's growth and development.

"It is a fantastic honor," said Netravali today after the ceremony. "It's a recognition of my life-long work, digital communications. And this honor is not just for me, but also for my past and present colleagues at Bell Labs, with whom I share this wonderful recognition of our innovative work advancing communications."

The compression technology Netravali developed is essential to digital video systems used in cable and network television, digital video/versatile disks (DVDs), MP3 music players, high-definition television (HDTV), video telephones, and videoconferencing systems. In addition, Netravali's work on digital compression is also the basis for systems that use streaming video over the Internet, Web sites that store compressed video, and multimedia computers. Cable TV set-top boxes, direct broadcast satellite receivers, and HDTV sets that use the MPEG and HDTV standards rely on Netravali's compression algorithms, which also made communication services such as video conferencing and Internet streaming video an economic reality.

Netravali led the development of HDTV technology at Bell Labs in the 1990s, and a video encoder based on Netravali's work is today used by over 150 TV stations for their HDTV broadcasts. In 1997, Netravali received an Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work on HDTV.

Netravali served as president of Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies' research and development division, from 1999 to 2001. Under his leadership, Lucent dramatically increased the speed with which it was able to move innovations from lab to market. He now serves as Lucent's chief scientist, working with the academic and investment communities to identify important new networking technologies and advising Lucent's senior management on technical and customer issues.

Netravali is a member of Tau Beta Phi and Sigma Xi, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering. For his scientific achievements, he has received numerous awards, including the Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1991), the Computers & Communications Prize, (1997, NEC, Japan), the Frederik Philips Award from the IEEE (2000), the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Medal in India (2000), and the Kilby Medal from the IEEE (2001).

In 2001, he also received the Padma Bhushan Award from the President of India, the nation's third-highest civilian honor.

He has authored more than 170 technical papers and co-authored three books: Digital Picture Representation and Compression, (Plenum, 1987), Visual Communications Systems, (IEEE Press, 1989) and Digital Video: An Introduction to MPEG-2, (Chapman and Hall, 1996). He holds more than 70 patents in the areas of computer networks, human interfaces to machines, picture processing and digital video and television.

Netravali was an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught graduate courses at City College (N.Y.), Columbia University and Rutgers University. He has served on the editorial board of the IEEE, and is currently an editor of several journals. He serves on the board of a number of organizations.

He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, and master's and doctorate degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas, all in electrical engineering. He holds honorary doctorates from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai Osmania University, Hyderabad.

In addition to the nine U.S. Medals of Science laureates affiliated with Bell Labs, Netravali joins the seven previous Bell Labs scientists and engineers as U.S. Medals of Technology laureates: Kenneth Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (1998) for creating the UNIX operating system and C Language; Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel (1994) for their fundamental contributions to the theory, design and development of cellular mobile communications systems; Amos Joel (1993) for his vision, inventiveness and perseverance in introducing technological advances in telecommunications that have had a major impact on the evolution of the telecommunications industry; W. Lincoln Hawkins (1992) for his invention and contribution to the commercialization of long-lived plastic coatings for communications cable and his leadership in encouraging minorities to pursue science and engineering careers; and John Mayo (1990) for providing the technological foundation for information-age communications and for overseeing the conversion of the national switched telephone network from analog to digital-based technology. In 1985, Bell Labs as an organization was honored with the medal for its numerous contributions to modern communications systems.

Including this year's laureates, this honor has been bestowed on 120 individuals and 12 companies. More information about the National Medal of Technology can be found at http://www.nationalmedals.org.

With approximately 16,000 employees in 16 countries, Bell Labs is the leading source of new communications technologies. Bell Labs has generated more than 28,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received six Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. Medals of Science and eight U.S. Medals of Technology. For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers networks for the world's largest communications service providers. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent relies on its strengths in mobility, optical, data and voice networking technologies as well as software and services to develop next-generation networks. The company's systems, services and software are designed to help customers quickly deploy and better manage their networks and create new, revenue-generating services that help businesses and consumers. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.