Benter award winner explores the world of imaging research

July 29th, 2010

Air Force Office of Scientifc Research-funded mathematics professor, Dr. George Papanicolaou of Stanford University, was awarded the first biennial William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics at the City University of Hong Kong for "outstanding contributions in mathematics linking theory to applied problems in various areas including imaging analysis."

Papanicolaou's research is important to the Air Force because it gives them the capability to explore and image complex and random environments where targets or hazardous materials' detection is of paramount importance.

"The understanding of the effects of randomness in physical settings, including wave propagation through random media, must be pursued by every means possible," said Dr. Arje Nachman, AFOSR program manager. "And while the tool of Monte Carlo simulation has a long and distinguished record in this pursuit, the mathematical contributions of Dr. Papanicolaou are noteworthy for their depth and sophistication."

The support Papanicolaou has received from AFOSR over the past decade enabled him to develop methods for detecting, filtering and creating images in varying degrees of clutter.

"I am very interested in clutter or interference to the imaging process which can be in the form of buildings, shrubbery or other topography and can severely degrade signals from which detection and imaging are done," said Papanicolaou.

"My vision is to create effective and flexible algorithms from mathematical methodology that can image where there is clutter in the environment," said Papanicolaou. "Currently, sensing and detection is mathematical in its approach, but it is also quite fragmented because it covers a variety of disciplines including radar, sonar, seismic and ultrasonic imaging."

"The difficulty of imaging in clutter shows clearly the negative aspects of this fragmentation and when progress is made in a basic way, the benefits spread to all the associated disciplines," he said.

Papanicolaou was surprised and pleased that he was selected to receive the William Benter Award, which carries a cash prize of $100,000. The prestigious award was presented by William Benter at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Applied Mathematics in Hong Kong. The award recognizes the importance of Papanicolaou's work in imaging research, as well as in other theoretical and applied science areas in physics, fluid dynamics, electrodynamics and financial analysis where uncertainty quantification is important.

"Imaging is used in just about every important area in medical diagnostics, seismic exploration and satellite remote sensing, non-destructive testing, and more broadly, it is crucial to quantify uncertainty in complex engineering and physics problems," said Papanicolaou.

Provided by Air Force Office of Scientific Research