Brussels-born Ingrid Daubechies wins L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award

This prize has rewarded five female researchers from around the world every year for the last 20 years. More than 3,000 women from 117 different countries have already been recognised for their pioneering research in scientific disciplines such as chemistry, physics and mathematics.

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In honour of International Day of Women and Girls in Science…Share this news with a sister crushing it in STEM!🔬🧬👩🏾‍💻👩🏼‍🔬 . Today, L’Oréal USA announced the selection of Professor Ingrid Daubechies as the North American Lauriete for the 2019 International Award for Women in Science. Professor Daubechies is an accomplished Physicist and Applied Mathematician, honoured for her remarkable research on wavelets theory, transforming the numerical treatment of images and signals for data compression. This theory has created a new universal language that will enable the reconstruction of early Hubble Telescope images, electronic sharing of highly-detailed fingerprints, detection of forged documents and rise of digital cinema. In a world where only 3% of Nobel Prizes winners in science are female, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program is truly making history. Working with L'Oréal on this makes all of us so proud to do what we do; especially as Professor Daubechies’ accomplishments in mathematics marks the first time the domain was included in the awards recognition. Stay tuned for more inspiring content; We'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on how female scientists have impacted your life. #womeninSTEM #lorealwomeninscience #womenofworth #dukeuniversity #wavelettheory #wavetheory #ingriddaubechies #dukescience #lorealUSA #womeninscience

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On 14 March, Ingrid Daubechies was rewarded for her pioneering work on « wavelet theory », which has led to things as different as the reconstruction of the first images from the Hubble telescope, medical imaging, the electronic sharing of fingerprints, digital cinema and the compression of sound sequences onto an MP3 file so that files can be stored and played on a smartphone.

Ingrid Daubechies, a Brussels-born naturalised American, has studied and built a career on two continents. After earning a PhD in theoretical physics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), she became the very first female professor of mathematics at the prestigious Princeton University. She continued her career as a professor at Duke University in North Carolina and also became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

As well as her scientific prowess, Ingrid Daubechies has actively helped to extend access to mathematics and science in emerging countries. A cause she vigorously defended as President of the International Mathematical Union from 2011 to 2014.