RTG Women Luncheon: Ingrid Daubechies

April 5, 2023

Each semester the RTG program will host a luncheon for women trainees with a faculty role model, from within or outside UNC, to share and discuss unique challenges, experiences, and opportunities for women in STEM.

This semester the luncheon will be held on April 20th from 12:30pm to 2:00pm at Carolina Union (Rooms 3206AB). We will have Prof. Ingrid Daubechies from Duke University as the faculty role model joining the lunch. Daubechies is recognized for her study of the mathematical methods that enhance image-compression technology and she is dubbed the “Godmother of the Digital Image”.

Her research involves the use of automatic methods from both mathematics, technology, and biology to extract information from samples such as bones and teeth. She developed sophisticated image processing techniques used to help establish the authenticity and age of some of the world’s most famous works of art, including paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt.

Daubechies is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her accomplishments have garnered her the Wolf Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, NAS Mathematics Prize, Steele Prize, Nemmers Prize, among others. She is on the board of directors of Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE), a program that helps women entering graduate studies in the mathematical sciences. She was the first woman to be president of the International Mathematical Union (2011–2014).