Honorary Degree: Nasir Ahmed

Nasir Ahmed was born in Bangalore, India, now known as Bengaluru. He received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1961 and then came to UNM the fall of that same year. He then succeeded in obtaining his Masters of Science and PhD degrees in 1963 and 1966 through UNM’s Electrical Engineering Department.

Dr. Ahmend decided to gain experience in the industry before dedicating his life to teaching. He became the principal research engineer at Honeywell in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was introduced to the digital world, but was soon drawn to Kansas State University by the Electrical and Computer Engineering chair and former UNM professor Dr. K. Koepsel.

In 1983 he returned to his alma mater of UNM where he was Presidential Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1983 to 1989, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1989 to 1994, dean of the School of Engineering from 1994 until 1996, and associate provost for research and dean of Graduate Studies from 1996 until his retirement in 2001.

Ahmed also worked as a consultant for Sandia National Laboratories from 1976 to 1990 and other labs such as The Underwater Sound Lab in New London, Connecticut and Boeing in Wichita, Kansas.

You may have never heard of Dr. Ahmed before today, but his greatest achievement is one that impacts each of us every single day, helping us stay connected.

If you were on a Zoom call this week or shared a JPEG image of your graduation today, this would not have been possible without our honoree. In those years between earning his PhD at UNM and returning as a professor, Dr. Ahmend developed the algorithm- a set of instructions to a computer to sort data and solve a problem- called Discrete Cosine Transform or DCT. The algorithm allows digital image compression, which made possible such technologies as JPEG images and the technology we use for video conferencing.

The 1974 landmark publication on the algorithm has more than 5,000 citations to date and is published in multiple languages, changing the face of digital technology. Dr. Ahmed’s story was also portrayed in the NBC TV Series “This Is Us,” highlighting his innovation and it’s impact on our society during the pandemic.

Dr. Ahmed met his wife Esther Pariente-Ahmed of 56 years at UNM, who also earned her PhD from UNM in 1994, and their son, Michael Pariente, received his Bachelor’s degree from UNM and is now a well-known attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada.