Martin Vetterli is a professor of

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and was the former president of EPFL between 2017 and 2024. He was also formerly the president of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Martin Vetterli has made numerous research contributions in the general area of

digital signal processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are a ...

and is best known for his work on

wavelets A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that begins at zero, increases or decreases, and then returns to zero one or more times. Wavelets are termed a "brief oscillation". A taxonomy of wavelets has been established, based on the n ...

. He has also contributed to other areas, including

sampling (signal processing) In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of "samples". A sample is a value of the signal at a point in time and/or ...

computational complexity theory In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and explores the relationships between these classifications. A computational problem ...

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

for communications, digital

video processing In electronics engineering, video processing is a particular case of signal processing, in particular image processing, which often employs filter (video), video filters and where the input and output Signal (electrical engineering), signals are vid ...

and joint source/channel coding. His work has led to over 150 journal publications and to two dozen of patents.

Career

Martin Vetterli received his

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

degree from

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

in 1981, and then completed a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in electrical engineering at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1982. He later pursued his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at EPFL in 1986. After his dissertation, he was an assistant and associate professor in electrical engineering at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York, and in 1993, he became an associate and then full professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. In 1995, he joined EPFL as a full-time professor. He held several positions there, including chair of communication systems and founding director of the National Competence Center in Research on Mobile Information and Communication systems (NCCR-MICS). From 2004 to 2011, he was vice president of EPFL for international affairs and, from 2011 to 2012, he was the dean of the School of Computer and Communications Sciences at EPFL. In 2015, he was elected to the

United States National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the ...

as an International Member for his contributions to the development of time-frequency representations and algorithms in multimedia signal processing and communications. From 2013 to 2016 he was the president of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation, before being elected as the president of EPFL in

. He is also responsible for developing, publishing and maintaining an extensive

massive open online course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the World Wide Web, Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and p ...

on the basics of

. The course is a collaboration effort between him and his colleague, Paolo Prandoni. The course was first offered in February 2013 on

Coursera Coursera Inc. () is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offe ...

and has been offered every year on the site since then. Each session runs for 10 weeks.

Scientific contributions

Martin Vetterli works in the areas of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

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 ...

. His work covers

and applications, image and video compression (

data compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compressi ...

), self-organized communications systems and

sensor networks Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) refer to networks of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors that monitor and record the physical conditions of the environment and forward the collected data to a central location. WSNs can measure environmental ...

, as well as fast algorithms. File:Sampled.signal.svg, Signal processing File:Network_Tree_diagram.png, Communication networks File:Spherical_pressure_waves.gif, Audio processing File:TomographyPrinciple_Illustration.png, Inverse problems and tomography File:Gustav_Klimt_039.jpg, eFacsimile At the core of his laboratory's current research is mathematical signal processing, that is, the set of tools and algorithms from applied harmonic analysis that are central to signal processing. These include representations for signals (Fourier, wavelets, frames), sampling theory, and sparse representations. A main application of signal processing is in communications and sensor networks. In addition to important classic topics like channel estimation and equalization, multiuser systems like sensor networks are of great interest. This leads to distributed compression, sampling, and modeling of physical phenomena. The area of audio processing and digital acoustics deals with multi-channel acquisition, processing and rendering of audio signals. This includes questions of sound field sampling, synthesis and perception. Inverse problems and tomography are key signal processing tasks where state of the art techniques have high potential impact. In particular, the project on ultrasound tomography intends to solve a long-standing quest for a safe and affordable breast cancer screening method. In the area of image/video processing and applications, his research has on-going projects in image acquisition, image representations, and super-resolution imaging. Applications include image annotation and augmented reality for mobile devices. The eFacsimile research project, sponsored by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, is focused on the research and development of a new acquisition, representation and rendering paradigm for the high-quality reproduction of artwork. The research of Martin Vetterli has led to about 150 journal papers and resulted also in about two dozen patents that led to technology transfers to high-tech companies and the creation of several start-ups. Martin Vetterli is a co-author of the book ''Wavelets and Subband Coding'' (Prentice-Hall, 1995). In 2008, Vetterli authored with Paolo Prandoni a free textbook ''Signal Processing for Communications''. In 2014, another book with the title ''Foundations of Signal Processing'' (coauthored by Jelena Kovačević and Vivek Goyal) was also published freely accessible.

Presidency of the EPFL

On 1 January 2017, Martin Vetterli became the EPFL's fifth president. The priorities of his direction team include

open science Open science is the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional. Open science is transparent and accessib ...

computational thinking Computational thinking (CT) refers to the thought processes involved in formulating problems so their solutions can be represented as computational steps and algorithms. In education, CT is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressin ...

and

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

. Starting 1 January 2025, the

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand co ...

appointed Anna Fontcuberta i Morral as the sixth President of EPFL for a 4-year term, succeeding Martin Vetterli. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Awards and honours

* 2017 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal * Best paper award from EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing (1984) * Best paper award from IEEE Signal Processing Society (1991, 1996 and 2006) * Fellow of the

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

"for contributions to the theory and practice of subband coding and wavelets" (1995) * National Latsis Prize (1996) *

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

Presidential award (1999) *

Signal Processing Technical Achievement Award (2001) * Fellow of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

(2009) * Fellow of EURASIP *

Signal Processing Society Award (2010) * Former member of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council (2000-2004) * President of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation * International Member of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

References

External links

*
Martin Vetterli's homepage
at the EPFL
Wavelets and Subband Coding webpageFoundations of Signal processing webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetterli, Martin 1957 births Living people Fellows of the IEEE 2009 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Electrical engineering academics Swiss electronics engineers ETH Zurich alumni Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering