IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q4 2022 - 3

Interview
An Interview with Professor Ingrid Daubechies
I
n July of 2022, the EiC of the IEEE Circuits and Systems
Magazine-Yiran Chen and the Associate Editor-Fan
Chen had a great chance to interview the legendary
mathematician Professor Ingrid Daubechies, known as
the Godmother of the digital image. In this interview,
Prof. Daubechies shared with our CAS readers her
insightful reflections and wisdoms on mathematical
education and beyond,
her
illustrious career,
and colorful life. A total
of nine questions were
compiled into this interview
article. We hope
that
our CAS
readers
enjoy - Thank You!
Prof. Ingrid
Daubechies's Short Bio
Ingrid Daubechies received
the Ph.D. degree in
theoretical physics. She
has spent most of her career
on bringing mathematical techniques and analysis
to bear on applications not only from physics, but also in
signal processing, brain imaging, geophysics, biological
morphology, and art conservation and analysis, as well
as on research in mathematics. She is currently a Professor
at Duke University. During the isolation caused
by the pandemic, she has spent part of her time on the
realization, together with 23 other mathematicians and
artists, of an art installation that seeks to communicate
the wonder, the beauty, and the whimsy of mathematics.
More details can be found at: mathemalchemy.org.
Question 1: Can you share with our readers about your
earliest memories on mathematics? Did you receive any
special early training in math? And what is your advice
on encouraging children's interests in STEM?
Prof. Daubechies: At a very early age, I was interested in
how things work, how things are put together, and why
things are the way they are. I would ask many questions.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCAS.2022.3214401
Date of current version: 13 January 2023
FOURTH QUARTER 2022
My father was an engineer and he liked answering my
questions. I did not receive any special tutoring on mathematics,
but I have never dissociated my interest in mathematics
from this curiosity into everything. It turned out
that, for much of this, in order to delve into understanding
you need a little bit of math, and on the other hand,
once you know a little bit of math you'll see many more
different things can be
explained - that's basically
what mathematics
is about: find patterns
in reasoning so you can
use them in many different
contexts because the
same reasoning happens.
This way of looking at
mathematics came very
early to me, and I also
liked that it was so logical
and put together so nicely.
Later I studied physics because
I was interested in
the application of mathematics to the world. And then I
drifted into what people call applied mathematics, which
is working on problems that are connected to other
branches by using mathematical tools. It all seemed a
very natural progression to me.
I think the most important thing to encourage children
is to just stimulate curiosity rather than a specific
subject. The world needs a lot of different things
and I believe that there is room for everybody and for
all talents. In my case, both my son and my daughter
love mathematics and majored in mathematics, which
I hadn't expected because we didn't try to push mathematics,
but we did push curiosity. We had an encyclopedia
at home. Whenever a question came up at the dinner
table, we would start looking it up and talk about
it. I didn't do it consciously, but the children remember
this. I have been very careful not to project a dream on
my children. I just help them develop in the directions
that they seek to build - my daughter is now a data scientist,
and my son teaches high school mathematics in the
south side of Chicago where I think he has a bigger possibility
to impact young people than many college teachers,
so I'm very proud of him, as well as of my daughter.
IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
3
http://www.mathemalchemy.org
IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q4 2022

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