Program > Plenary Speakers

Ingrid Daubechies

Ingrid Daubechies earned her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She currently holds the title of James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. Although her degree is in (theoretical) physics, she thought she would become an engineer while growing up. Her mother was heartbroken when she opted for pure science instead, and predicted Ingrid would end up in the gutter, jobless. Fortunately, matters turned out better. Her academic work focuses on mathematical methods for the analysis of signals, images and data, with applications in many directions. She enjoys working in collaboration with others, in her scientific work as well as otherwise. Her latest collaboration is a Simons Foundation/Duke University funded art project https://mathemalchemy.org/.

Mathematicians helping art historians and art conservators

In recent years, mathematical algorithms have helped art historians and art conservators putting together the thousands of fragments into which an unfortunate WWII bombing destroyed world famous frescos by Mantegna, decide that certain paintings by masters were “roll mates” (their canvases were cut from the same bolt), virtually remove artifacts in preparation for a restoration campaign, get more insight into paintings hidden underneath a visible one. The presentation reviews these applications, and gives a glimpse into the mathematical aspects that make this possible.

Yue Lu

Harvard University

Tara Sainath

Google

Gerhard P. Fettweis

TU Dresden