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Duke Mathematician Awarded More Than $400000 for Her Contributions to Wavelet Theory

Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the 2018 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award for her contribution to wavelet theory. Photo by Les Todd.
Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the 2018 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award for her contribution to wavelet theory. Photo by Les Todd.
By Duke Today Staff

Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the 2018 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award for her contribution to wavelet theory, a refinement of the Fourier technique frequently used to shrink digital photos and movies so that they take up fewer kilobytes without noticeably losing detail.

The award is presented for her work on the orthogonal Daubechies wavelet and the biorthogonal CDF (Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau) wavelet, her leadership in developing wavelet theory and modern time-frequency analysis which fundamentally changed image and signal processing, her deep influence on many areas of data analysis and scientific computing, and her contribution to image compression, analog-to-digital conversion and thresholding-based algorithms for inverse problems.

Now in its third year, the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award was jointly founded by Fudan University and Zhongzhi Enterprise Group in 2015 in recognition of global scientists who have made fundamental and distinguished achievements in the fields of biomedicine, physics and mathematics. 

Daubechies will be honored at a ceremony to be held December 16, 2018 in Shanghai, China. She will receive a certificate, a trophy, and 3 million yuan ($440,000) donated by Zhongzhi Enterprise Group.