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Liang Tai Wu Bell Communications Research, Morristown Liang Tai Wu invented a new asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network which will form the basic building block for a wide variety of services soon to be offered on the information superhighway. The invention describes a data communications technique which can handle the transmission of both circuit and packet traffic. With ATM, circuits of any speed can be configured by varying the rate that fixed length packets (known as cells) are sent over a train of time frames generated at a basic backbone rate. What is most important about the technique is that it has been accepted as a common technology endorsed by the previously somewhat disjointed computer, data network and telecommunications industries to support multimedia communications. There are widespread plans for ATM deployment worldwide, for both local and wide area networking. The U.S. government has awarded many contracts to construct agency networks using ATM technology. The Information Highway Initiative is expected to enrich people's economic, social and political lives. Liang Tai Wu, who for the past decade has been a mentor for many young engineers and scientists in ATM technology development, has recently become a principal investigator contracted by the National Science Foundation to assist construction of its version of the National Information Highway.