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New Mexico State University

Honorary Doctorate 1999

On 18 Dec 1999, New Mexico State University (NMSU) granted me an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa. I attended undergraduate school at NMSU 1961-1964, majored in Electrical Engineering (Computer Science didn't yet exist) and worked in its Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL), designing and tuning satellite tracking antennas. I did my first computer graphic image, an equiangular spiral (for an antenna), at PSL in 1968. The ceremony took place in Las Cruces, NM, home of NMSU. The diploma is below (and its text).

 

NMSU PhD

 

New Mexico State University

to all to whom these Presents may come, Greeting

Be it known that for his extraordinary achievements in the fields of computer graphics and computer animation, having co-founded four centers of computer graphics excellence before joining Microsoft Corporation as its first Graphics Fellow; for the pioneering role he has played in the development of computer-generated films and in the advancement of a variety of other digital imaging techniques; and recognizing that a weather satellite at NMSU's Physical Science Laboratory was the incentive for his first computer graphics design, the Regents hereby confer upon

Alvy Ray Smith

the degree of

Doctor of Laws

Honoris Causa

with all the Honors and Distinctions appertaining thereto. Witness the seal of the University and signatures of its officers this eighteenth day of December 1999, at Las Cruces, New Mexico

[Signed by the President of the Regents, the President of the University, and four other regents]