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 |
Baroness Ingrid Daubechies (born August 17, 1954) is a famous Belgian-American physicist and mathematician. She is well-known for her amazing work with wavelets. Wavelets are like tiny mathematical tools that help make image compression better.
Her research has made image compression technology much better. She is a member of important groups like the National Academy of Engineering. She also received a special award called the MacArthur Fellowship in 1992.
The name Daubechies is linked to special types of wavelets. One of these wavelets is now used in the JPEG 2000 standard. This standard helps compress images so they take up less space.
Her work also involves using math and technology to learn things from samples like bones and teeth. She also created smart image processing methods. These methods help figure out if famous artworks, like paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt, are real and how old they are.
Daubechies helps women who want to study math in college. She was the first woman to be president of the International Mathematical Union. This is a big deal in the world of mathematics.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ingrid Daubechies was born in Houthalen, Belgium. Her mother, Simonne Duran, was a criminologist. Her father, Marcel Daubechies, was a civil mining engineer.
When she was a little girl, she loved numbers. Instead of counting sheep to fall asleep, she would multiply numbers by two in her head. This helped her understand how numbers grow very quickly. Her parents noticed she understood complex math ideas, like cones and tetrahedrons, before she was six.
She was very good at primary school. She even skipped a grade after only three months. After finishing high school in Hasselt, she went to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel at age 17.
Daubechies finished her physics studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1975. She then worked with Alex Grossmann in France. This work led to her getting her PhD in theoretical physics in 1980.
Her Career in Mathematics
After getting her PhD, Daubechies continued her research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She worked there until 1987.
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 with computers. This made wavelet theory useful for digital signal processing.
In 1987, Daubechies joined Bell Laboratories. In 1988, she published her important research on these new wavelets.
She became a professor at Rutgers University in 1991. She taught math there until 1994.
In 1994, Daubechies moved to Princeton University. She worked on applied and computational mathematics. In 2004, she became a special professor there. She was the first woman to become a full math professor at Princeton.
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 artist Dominique Ehrmann. They led a team to create Mathemalchemy. This is an art and math exhibit that travels around.
Using Math for Art Restoration
Ingrid Daubechies has used her math skills to help restore many artworks. Her team worked on the Ghent Altarpiece. This is a huge painting from the 1400s. It has 12 panels and was painted by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck.
Daubechies and her team created new math methods. These methods helped reverse the effects of age on the paintings. They also helped fix damage from old restoration attempts. They used very detailed photos and X-rays of the panels. Their methods helped find cracks caused by aging automatically. They even helped read hidden text on the artwork.
Daubechies and her helpers also worked on the Saint John Altarpiece. This painting is from the 1300s by Francescuccio Ghissi. It is in the North Carolina Museum of Art. They used some of the same methods they learned from the Ghent Altarpiece project. For this project, they used computer programs that can learn to separate different parts of the artwork.
Awards and Recognitions
Daubechies has received many awards for her amazing work.
- In 1984, she won the Louis Empain Prize for Physics.
- In 1992, she received a MacArthur Fellowship.
- In 1994, she won the American Mathematical Society Steele Prize for her book, Ten Lectures on Wavelets.
- In 1998, she was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
- In 2000, Daubechies became the first woman to receive the NAS Award in Mathematics. This award is given for excellent math research. It honored her for her "fundamental discoveries on wavelets."
- In 2006, she was the Emmy Noether Lecturer.
- In 2011, she received the IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal. She also won the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research.
- In 2012, the King of Belgium gave her the title of Baroness. She also won the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics.
- In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
- In 2018, Daubechies won the William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics. She was the first woman to receive this award. They praised her work on wavelets and how it helped the "mobile smartphone revolution."
- In 2019, she received the L'Oréal-UNESCO International Award For Women in Science.
- In 2020, Daubechies received the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.
- In 2023, she was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics. She was the first woman to receive this important award.
- In 2024, she received honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Amherst College.
- In January 2025, Daubechies was a recipient of 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 Wavelets
- Image compression
- Digital cinema
- Digital art restoration]
- Biological morphology
See also
In Spanish: Ingrid Daubechies para niños
