Gunilla Borgefors (born 1952) is a Swedish computer scientist specializing in

image processing An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

, including

distance transform A distance transform, also known as distance map or distance field, is a derived representation of a digital image. The choice of the term depends on the point of view on the object in question: whether the initial image is transformed into anothe ...

topological skeleton In shape analysis, skeleton (or topological skeleton) of a shape is a thin version of that shape that is equidistant to its boundaries. The skeleton usually emphasizes geometrical and topological properties of the shape, such as its connectivit ...

ization, and

edge detection Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed b ...

. She is a

professor emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in the Department of Information Technology at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

, associated with the Centre for Image Analysis.

Early life and education

Borgefors was born in 1952 in

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

. She earned a master's degree in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

Linköping University Linköping University (LiU; ) is a public university, public research university based in Linköping, Sweden. Originally established in 1969, it was granted full university status in 1975 and is one of Sweden's largest academic institutions. T ...

in 1975, and completed a Ph.D. in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

at the

KTH Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a Public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in Institute of technology, engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest te ...

in 1986. Her dissertation, ''On Hierarchical Edge Matching in Digital Images Using Distance Transformations'', was jointly supervised by

Germund Dahlquist Germund Dahlquist (16 January 1925 – 8 February 2005) was a Sweden, Swedish mathematician known primarily for his early contributions to the theory of numerical analysis as applied to differential equations. Dahlquist began to study mathematics ...

and Jan-Olof Eklundh. She also has a master's degree in journalism, earned in 2007 at Uppsala University.

Career

After working for the

Swedish Defence Research Agency The Swedish Defence Research Agency (, FOI; literal translation: ''Total Defence Research Institute'') is a government agency in Sweden for total defence research and development. FOI has its headquarters in Kista (Stockholm). Other FOI offic ...

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

from 1982 to 1993, and becoming director of research for

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

and head of the Division of Information Systems there, she moved in 1993 to a professorship at the

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (, SLU) is a public research university in Sweden. Although its main campus and head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several campuses ...

, where she headed the Centre for Image Analysis. In 2005 she began a guest professorship at Uppsala University and in 2012 she moved to a full-time professorship at Uppsala. She served as editor-in-chief of the journal '' Pattern Recognition Letters'', beginning in 2011, and was president of the Swedish Society for Automated Image Analysis from 1988 to 1992.

Recognition

Borgefors was named a Fellow of the

International Association for Pattern Recognition The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), is an international association of organizations dedicated to computer vision or pattern recognition. It only admits one organization per country or territory. Individual people partic ...

in 1998, "for contributions to digital geometry and for outstanding service to IAPR". She became an

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

in 2008, "for contributions to discrete geometry and image analysis". She became a member of the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. Early members included Emanuel Swedenborg an ...

in 2000, and a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (, IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promotes contact and exchange between business, ...

in 2011. She was the 2007 winner of the Edlund Prize of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

References

External links

Archived home page
(2013) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Borgefors, Gunilla Living people Swedish computer scientists Swedish women computer scientists Computer vision researchers Linköping University alumni KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the IEEE 1952 births