In simple words, Ingrid Daubechies was a child genius. During her childhood, her father encouraged her to take an interest in Science while at school. Ingrid, however, was far more interested in Mathematics.
It was extraordinary how her mind worked and functioned at such a young age. She said,
“I was always interested in how things worked and how to make things. For instance, I really like weaving and pottery, and I have liked this kind of craft pursuit since my childhood. But I also was interested in seeing how machinery worked, or in why certain mathematical things were true (like the fact that a number is divisible by nine if, when you add all its digits together, you get another number divisible by 9 - try it with 73512 and 8577, both multiples of 9; there is no rule that is quite as simple for divisibility by 7, say”
Her mind was always filled with Mathematical Thoughts. As she recalls memories of her childhood, she said,
“When I was eight or nine, the thing I liked best when playing with my dolls was to sew clothes for them. I liked trying to make patterns that would fit them well - it was fascinating to me that by putting together flat pieces of fabric one could make something that was not flat at all, but followed curved surfaces. Around the same time, when I couldn't fall asleep at night, I would compute the powers of 2in my head: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ... (multiplying by 2 every time). The numbers became very large very quickly but I would keep going quite a while. It was fascinating, again, to see how fast these numbers grew.”
Ingrid Daubechies went to school in Belgium. She excelled at the primary school she attended and moved up a class after only 3 months. According to her parents she was able to derive the area of an ellipse by means of integral calculation at the age of 11. After completing the Lyceum in Turnhout she entered the Vrije Universiteit Brussel at 17. Daubechies completed her undergraduate studies in physics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1975.
After that, she entered the Free University Brussels to get a degree in Physics. Many of the mathematicians in this archive have started out as mathematicians and have later come to apply their mathematical skills in other scientific disciplines. Daubechies, however, is one of the few who progressed in the opposite direction, starting off by training in physics. She finally obtained her Bachelor's degree in Physics in 1975 and then continued to undertake research at the Free University Brussels for a doctorate in physics.
It was extraordinary how her mind worked and functioned at such a young age. She said,
“I was always interested in how things worked and how to make things. For instance, I really like weaving and pottery, and I have liked this kind of craft pursuit since my childhood. But I also was interested in seeing how machinery worked, or in why certain mathematical things were true (like the fact that a number is divisible by nine if, when you add all its digits together, you get another number divisible by 9 - try it with 73512 and 8577, both multiples of 9; there is no rule that is quite as simple for divisibility by 7, say”
Her mind was always filled with Mathematical Thoughts. As she recalls memories of her childhood, she said,
“When I was eight or nine, the thing I liked best when playing with my dolls was to sew clothes for them. I liked trying to make patterns that would fit them well - it was fascinating to me that by putting together flat pieces of fabric one could make something that was not flat at all, but followed curved surfaces. Around the same time, when I couldn't fall asleep at night, I would compute the powers of 2in my head: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ... (multiplying by 2 every time). The numbers became very large very quickly but I would keep going quite a while. It was fascinating, again, to see how fast these numbers grew.”
Ingrid Daubechies went to school in Belgium. She excelled at the primary school she attended and moved up a class after only 3 months. According to her parents she was able to derive the area of an ellipse by means of integral calculation at the age of 11. After completing the Lyceum in Turnhout she entered the Vrije Universiteit Brussel at 17. Daubechies completed her undergraduate studies in physics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1975.
After that, she entered the Free University Brussels to get a degree in Physics. Many of the mathematicians in this archive have started out as mathematicians and have later come to apply their mathematical skills in other scientific disciplines. Daubechies, however, is one of the few who progressed in the opposite direction, starting off by training in physics. She finally obtained her Bachelor's degree in Physics in 1975 and then continued to undertake research at the Free University Brussels for a doctorate in physics.