The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2017 Abel Prize to Yves Meyer, École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, France "for his pivotal role in the development of the mathematical theory of wavelets".
The President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Ole M. Sejersted, announced the winner at the Academy in Oslo on 21 March. Meyer will receive the Prize from His Majesty King Harald V at an award ceremony in Oslo on 23 May.
Yves Meyer was the visionary leader in the modern development of the mathematical theory of wavelets, at the intersection of mathematics, information technology and computational science. Wavelet analysis has been applied in a wide variety of areas including applied and computational harmonic analysis, data compression, noise reduction, medical imaging, archiving, digital cinema, deconvolution of the Hubble space telescope images, and the recent LIGO detection of gravitational waves created by the collision of two black holes.
The annual prize, which has been awarded since 2013, carries a monetary award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (approximately £585,000). More information about the 2017 Abel Prize winner is available