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Mathematicians helping art historians and art conservators

02 June 2025 18:30 - 19:30 The Royal Society Free Watch online
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Ingrid Daubechies

Join us for the Royal Society Bakerian Prize Lecture delivered by Professor Ingrid Daubechies FRS.

The Bakerian Medal and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Professor Ingrid Daubechies for her outstanding work on wavelets and image compression and her exceptional contributions to a wide spectrum of physical, technological, and mathematical applications.

Professor Daubechies will discuss the recent years where mathematical algorithms have helped art historians and art conservators put 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 artefacts in preparation for a restoration campaign and 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.

Ingrid Daubechies is a Belgian American mathematician whose work focuses on applications of mathematics to a wide range of fields. She currently holds the title of James B. Duke Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. She started her career in mathematical physics, branching out to signal analysis a few years after her Ph.D. Her construction of bases of wavelets supported on finite intervals not only solved fundamental mathematical problems, but also had a large impact on signal and image processing; some of her work is used in the image compression standard JPEG-2000. She has played a unique role in making wavelets a practical basic tool of applied mathematics with major impacts on medical imaging, remote sensing, and digital photography, and she has also introduced sophisticated mathematical techniques to art conservation and evolutionary biology.

Attending the event

  • The event is free to join, please register via Eventbrite for a ticket
  • Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually

Attending in person

  • This lecture can be attended in person at the Royal Society
  • Doors will open to the public at 6.00pm BST

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Attending online

  • The lecture will also be livestreamed here and on the Royal Society YouTube channel
  • You can take part in the live Q&A via Slido
  • This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and the recording will be available on YouTube soon after the event

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