Ingrid Daubechies facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ingrid Daubechies
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Daubechies at the ICM 2018
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| Born | 17 August 1954 |
| Alma mater | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
| Known for | Wavelets |
| Awards | MacArthur Fellowship (1992) NAS Award in Mathematics (2000) Noether Lecturer (2006) Leroy P. Steele Prize (2011) Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2012) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2012) L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award (2019) Princess of Asturias Award (2020) Wolf Prize in Mathematics (2023) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematician Physicist |
| Institutions | Duke University Princeton University Rutgers University |
| Doctoral advisor | Jean Reignier Alex Grossmann |
| Doctoral students | Anna Gilbert Rachel Ward Cynthia Rudin |
Ingrid Daubechies (born August 17, 1954) is a famous Belgian-American physicist and mathematician. She is best known for her important work with wavelets. Wavelets are special mathematical tools that help make image compression better.
Daubechies is celebrated for her studies on mathematical methods. These methods make technology like image compression work much better. She is a member of several important groups, including the National Academy of Engineering. She also received a special award called the MacArthur Fellowship in 1992.
The name Daubechies is well-known because of the Daubechies wavelet. This type of wavelet is now used in the JPEG 2000 standard. This standard helps compress digital images.
Her research also involves using math and technology to study things like bones and teeth. She has also created advanced image processing techniques. These techniques help figure out if famous artworks are real and how old they are. She has worked on paintings by artists like Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt.
Daubechies helps women who want to study math in college. She was also the first woman to lead the International Mathematical Union. This is a very important group for mathematicians around the world.
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Early Life and Learning
Ingrid Daubechies was born in Houthalen, Belgium. Her mother was a criminologist, and her father was a civil mining engineer. She remembers that as a little girl, she would multiply numbers by two in her head when she couldn't sleep. This helped her learn about how numbers grow very quickly.
Her parents noticed she understood math ideas like cone and tetrahedron before she was six. She was very good at school and skipped a grade. At age 17, she started studying at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Daubechies finished her physics studies in 1975. She then worked with Alex Grossmann in France. This work helped her earn her PhD in theoretical physics in 1980.
Her Career in Mathematics
After getting her PhD, Daubechies continued her research in Belgium. She became a research assistant-professor and then a research associate-professor.
In 1986, she visited the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York. There, she made her most famous discovery. She created special wavelets that could be used in digital signal processing. This made wavelet theory much more useful for computers.
In 1987, Daubechies joined Bell Labs. In 1988, she shared her research on these new wavelets. Her work was published in a math journal.
From 1991 to 1994, Daubechies was a professor at Rutgers University. She taught in their mathematics department.
In 1994, she moved to Princeton University. She worked in the applied and computational mathematics program. In 2004, she became a full professor there. She was the first woman to achieve this at Princeton in mathematics.
In 2011, Daubechies moved to Duke University. She became a professor in math and electrical engineering. In 2016, she helped start a summer workshop for high school girls interested in math.
In 2020 and 2021, Daubechies worked with artists to create Mathemalchemy. This is an art and math exhibit that travels around.
Using Math in Art Restoration
Ingrid Daubechies has used her math skills to help restore old artworks. Her team worked on the Ghent Altarpiece. This is a very large 15th-century painting with 12 panels.
Daubechies and her team created new math techniques. These techniques helped reverse the effects of age on the paintings. They also helped fix damage from past restoration attempts. They used detailed photos and X-rays of the panels. Their methods helped find cracks caused by aging. They also helped read old text on the artwork.
Daubechies and her helpers also worked on the Saint John Altarpiece. This 14th-century painting is in the North Carolina Museum of Art. They used similar techniques from the Ghent Altarpiece project. They used computer programs that learn to separate different parts of the artwork.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Daubechies has received many awards for her work.
- In 1984, she won the Louis Empain Prize for Physics.
- In 1992, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. This is often called a "genius grant."
- In 1993, she was chosen for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 1994, she won the AMS Steele Prize for her book, Ten Lectures on Wavelets.
- In 1998, she was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
- In 2000, she was the first woman to receive the NAS Award in Mathematics. This award honors excellent math research. It recognized her discoveries in wavelets.
- In 2005, she gave the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship, a major math lecture.
- In 2006, she was the Emmy Noether Lecturer, another important lecture for women in math.
- In 2011, she received the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
- In 2012, the King of Belgium made her a Baroness. She also won the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics.
- In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
- In 2018, she won the William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics. She was the first woman to receive this award. She also won the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award.
- In 2019, she received the L'Oréal-UNESCO International Award For Women in Science.
- In 2020, she received the Princess of Asturias Award.
- In 2023, she was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics. She was the first woman to receive this award.
- In 2024, she received honorary degrees from two universities.
- In 2025, she will receive The Bakerian Medal and Lecture. She will also receive the National Medal of Science.
Personal Life
In 1985, Daubechies met mathematician Robert Calderbank. They got married in 1987. They have two children, Michael and Carolyn.
Applications of Her Work
Ingrid Daubechies' work has many uses, including:
- Image compression: Making digital images smaller without losing quality.
- Digital cinema: How movies are made and shown digitally.
- Digital art restoration]: Helping to fix and understand old paintings.
- Biological morphology: Studying the shapes and forms of living things.
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