Professor Ingrid Daubechies of Duke University gave The John von Neumann Lecture on Monday, July 18, at the 7th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM 2011) held last week in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is the highest honor awarded by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Her lecture, titled Sparsity in Signal Analysis and in Computation, gave an overview of sparse representations, presentations of functions and objects that manage to be both accurate and succinct. Dr. Daubechies's lecture covered mathematical insights that can be applied to obtain sparse representations through the choice of wavelet and other bases, as well as the construction of such representations through mathematical tools and analysis.
The John von Neumann Lecture, SIAM's flagship lecture, was established in 1959 to reward outstanding contributions to the field of applied mathematical sciences and their effective communication to the community.
The award, which is given in honor of the pioneering work of the applied mathematician, John von Neumann, fittingly surveys a significant contribution to applications in the field.
Dr. Daubechies received the prize in recognition of her fundamental work in the development of the foundations and applications of wavelets, and her multifaceted and lasting contributions to the mathematical sciences and engineering fields.
Currently a James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University, she received her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium. Her main research interest is in time-frequency analysis. She has formerly received the ICIAM Pioneer Prize and is a SIAM Fellow and book author.
Dr. Daubechies received a hand-calligraphed certificate and a cash award of $5,000 at the CAIMS/Mprime/SIAM Awards Lunch held on Thursday, July 21 at ICIAM 2011.
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