《A wavelet tour of signal processing》前言摘录

 

As I said, this wavelet theory is truly the result of a dialogue between scientists who often met by chance and were ready to listen. From my totally subjective point of view, among the many researchers who made important contributions, I would like to single out one, Yves Meyer, whose deep scientific vision was a major ingredient sparking this catalysis. It is ironic to see a French pure mathematician raised in a Bourbakist culture where applied meant trivial, playing a central role along this wavelet bridge between engineers and scientists coming from different disciplines.

When beginning my Ph. D in the U.S., the only project I had in mind was to travel, never become a researcher and certainly never teach. I had clearly destined myself to come back to France, and quickly begin climbing the ladder of some big corporation. Ten years later, I was still in the U.S., the mind buried in the hole of some obscure scientific problem, while teaching in a university. So what went wrong? Probably the fact that I met scientists like Yves Meyer, whose ethic and creativity have given me a totally different view of research and teaching. Trying to communicate this flame was a central motivation for writing this book. I hope that you will excuse me if my prose ends up too often in the no man’s land of scientific neutrality.

 "小波理论的确是科学家们在一起交谈出来的产物。我个人认为，在众多的对小波做出过重大贡献的研究者中，Yves Meyer是我非提不可的人，他深奥的科学思想是催化小波出现的主要成分。具有讽刺意义的是，一位法国的纯理论数学家，出身于视应用为平凡物的Bourbakist文化中，却在架起连接不同学科的工程师与科学家的小波之桥的过程中发挥了关键性的作用。"
"回想起我初到美国攻读博士学位时，充斥在我头脑中的唯一的课题就是旅游，而决不是做一个研究者，当然更不是教书。我想我注定要回到法国，会很快在某个大公司里求发展。十年过去了，我还在美国，一边在大学教书，一边沉醉于一些尚未解决的科学问题。是什么导致了这么大的反差，也许是我接触到了许多像Yves Meyer这样的科学家，他们的人格魅力和创造力使我对教学和研究产生了完全不同的看法。我试着想和大家交流这种感受，这就是我写作本书的初衷。如果我的叙述总是过多的在人迹罕至的'科学中立王国'前停下来，那么我要请求您的原谅。" 
                            ----By Stephane Mallat