The French mathematician Yves Meyer, a self-described “nomad” who has made deep contributions to the many subfields through which he has roamed over the past half-century, received the 2017 Abel Prize today in a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
The Abel, an award modeled after the Nobel that is considered one of the highest honors in mathematics, recognized Meyer in particular “for his pivotal role in the development of the mathematical theory of wavelets” — brief, heartbeat-like oscillations that serve as building blocks of digital sound and image data.
Meyer’s “work on wavelets has been transformative in the area of signal processing,” said the mathematician Terry Tao, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who presented the prize to Meyer by phone from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. “I myself have only met Meyer a few times, but he is certainly fun to talk to; he has an infectious love and enthusiasm of mathematics.”
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