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Three to be awarded honorary doctorates at undergraduate commencement
May 12, 2025 - by Kim Delker
Three individuals will receive honorary doctorates at The University of New Mexico spring 2025 undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 17.
Honorary degrees are awarded to recognize individuals’ contributions to a specific field or to society in general. Strong candidates are eminent individuals and scholars whose contributions are of general significance and transcend geographical limitations. Nominations of individuals who have contributed significantly to the cultural or scientific development of the Southwest or the spiritual or material welfare of its people are especially welcome.
A successful nominee must have an exemplary record of academic or public accomplishment in keeping with the University’s standards of rigor, quality and significance. Honorary degrees are awarded at spring commencement.
The 2025 recipients are:
Nasir Ahmed
Honorary Doctor of Science
Nasir Ahmed, a native of India, is a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at UNM. He earned both his master’s and doctorate in the department in 1963 and 1966, respectively. In the early 1970s, he developed the idea for the discrete cosine transform (DCT), an algorithm for digital image compression. The DCT led to technology such as JPEG images, as well as the technology that allows videoconferencing.
After graduation from UNM, Ahmed worked at Honeywell for two years, then joined the faculty of Kansas State University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he was a professor from 1968-83. He then transitioned to his alma mater of UNM in 1983, where he was a Presidential Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1983-89, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1989-94, interim dean of the School of Engineering from 1994-96, 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 1976-90.
In 2021, Ahmed experienced late-career fame after the television show This is Us featured a storyline that highlighted him, his time at UNM and the development of the DCT technology that made it possible to instantly communicate via videoconferencing — crucial during the pandemic.
He and his wife of 60 years, Esther, reside in Argentina.