Public Lectures

Photo by David von Becker

Ingrid Daubechies earned her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel.  In addition to seminal advances in time-frequency analysis, she is best known for her breakthroughs in wavelet research and contributions to digital signal processing. Some of the wavelet bases and other computational techniques she developed were incorporated into the JPEG2000 standard for image compression.

Daubechies’ career has seen many impressive firsts:  the first female full professor of mathematics at Princeton; the first woman to receive the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics in 2000; the first woman president of the International Mathematical Union in 2010; and she is very likely the first and only mathematician to have been granted the title of Baroness by Belgium’s King Albert II.

Daubechies continues to break new ground in mathematics research, focusing on signal analysis and inverse problems, with applications ranging from fMRI and geophysics to paleontology and fine art painting.