Emmanuel J. Candes, PhD

A distinguished mathematician and researcher, Emmanuel J. Candes, PhD commenced his professional journey upon earning a Bachelor of Science from École Polytechnique in France in 1993. He then transferred to the University of Paris IV and the University of Paris IX, where he achieved a Master of Science in applied mathematics in 1994. Shortly thereafter, he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in statistics from Stanford University in 1998, where he remained as an assistant professor of statistics through 2000. Dr. Candes then joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology in 2000, where he taught as an assistant, associate and full professor until 2006, as well as Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics until 2011 and department chair and executive officer for applied and computational mathematics in 2009.

For the past 13 years, Dr. Candes has dedicated his teaching and work to Stanford University, having been a professor of mathematics and statistics and a member of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering since 2009. In addition, he has been a professor of electrical engineering since 2010, the Barnum-Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics since 2012 and the director of the Data Science Design Team since 2018. From 2016 to 2018, he served as chair of the Department of Statistics. Alongside his primary roles, Dr. Candes maintains memberships with organizations such as the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the Mathematical Optimization Society. He was also elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society.

Finding great success throughout the course of his career, Dr. Candes has been the recipient of multiple professional recognitions, including the Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal from the IEEE in 2021, the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research in 2020, a Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 2019 and the Ralph E. Kleinman Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2017, among many others. Additionally, he was awarded several fellowships during his career, including a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship. Alongside these accomplishments Dr. Candes Dr. Candes is presently the vice-chairman of the science advisory board of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, contributes to the scientific advisory board of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, and is a jury member of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in the basic sciences.

Upon reflection, Dr. Candes considers a highlight of his professional journey to be a certain breakthrough from early in his career, which found it was mathematically possible to reconstruct images from what appeared to be too few data points. This mathematical possibility could in principle enable faster imaging times, most notably in magnetic resonance imaging. This was later demonstrated to be true and it has changed the process of MRIs, especially for pediatrics, as the scan would normally take two minutes, but they were able to reduce it to just 15 seconds. Dr. Candes attributes much of his success to the privilege of teaching extraordinary students that have gone on to have stellar careers at major universities. He also credits the influence of his mentors, David Donoho and Yves Meyer, and his wife, Chiara Sabatti, who is also a scientist.

Affiliations (Memberships): Fellow, IEEE (2018); Fellow, American Mathematical Society (2018); MacArthur Fellowship (2017); International Congress of Mathematicians (2015–2017); National Academy of Sciences (2014); Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014); International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) (2011); Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2010); National Science Foundation (2006); American Mathematical Society; Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

Creative Works: Editorial Board, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (2014–Present); Editorial Board, Information and Inference (2011–Present); Editorial Board, Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis (2010–Present); Editorial Board, Journal of the American Mathematical Society (2008–Present); Editorial Board, Inverse Problems and Imaging (2006–Present); Editorial Board, Constructive Approximation (2002–Present); Editorial Board, Foundations of Computational Mathematics (2007–2020); Organizer, “Math+Stats+X, A Conference on the Occasion of Dave Donoho’s 60th Birthday,” Stanford University (2017); Organizer, “Applied Harmonic Analysis, Massive Data Sets, Machine Learning, and Signal Processing,” BIRS (2016); US Patent, “A Digital Multiplexing Readout for Sparse Signals on Imaging Arrays,” (2015); Editorial Board, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2010–2014); Editorial Board, SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences (2007–2012); Editorial Board, Multiscale Modeling and Simulation (2006–2012); US Patent, “Error Correction Using Linear Programming,” (2011); US Patent, “Methods for Performing Fast Discrete Curvelet Transforms of Data,” (2010); Organizer, SIAM Conference on Imaging Science (2004, 2010); Editorial Board, Numerische Mathematik (2003–2010); Organizer, “Wavelets X,” SPIE Annual Meeting (2003, 2005); Organizer, “Multiscale Geometry and Analysis in High Dimensions,” Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (2004); Organizer, Second International Conference on Computational Harmonic Analysis (2004); US Patent, “Digital Ridgelet Transform via Digital Polar Coordinate Transform,” (2004); Organizer, “Multiscale Geometric Analysis,” Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (2003); Session Organizer, “Applied Inverse Problems” (2003); Contributor, Numerous Articles to Professional Journals; Presenter in Field

Civic: Jury Member, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in the Basic Sciences (2018–Present); Scientific Advisory Board, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing (2015–Present); Vice Chair, Science Advisory Board, Institute of Pure & Applied Mathematics (2014–Present); Member, Evaluation Committee of Proposals for Data Science Research Centers, The Data Science Initiative of the Council for Higher Education, Israel (2020); Proceedings of National Academy of Science Cozzarelli Prize Committee (2015–2019); Chair, Wiener Prize Committee, American Mathematical Society and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2018); Core Panel Member, Section 12, Probability & Statistics, International Congress of Mathematicians (2018); Nevanlinna Prize Committee, International Mathematical Union (IMU) (2017–2018); Elected Member, Advisory Board, Foundations of Computational Mathematics (2005); Elected Leader, SIAM Activity Group on the Imaging Sciences (2003); Member, National and International Committees

Awards: Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, IEEE (2021); Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2020); IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, Signal Processing Magazine (2019); Information Theory Society Paper Award (2019); Ralph E. Kleinman Prize, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2017); Fellow, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2017); Named Wald Memorial Lecturer, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2017); Prix Pierre Simon de Laplace, Société Française de Statistique (2016); Co-recipient, IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, Signal Processing Letters (2015); Co-recipient, Beal-Orchard-Hays Prize, Mathematical Optimization Society (2015); George David Birkhoff Prize, American Mathematical Society and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2015); Co-recipient, Outstanding Paper Prize, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2014); First Recipient, Prix Jean Kuntzmann (2014); Dannie Heineman Prize, Academy of Sciences at Göttingen (2013); Lagrange Prize in Continuous Optimization, Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2012); Named Simons Chair, Math+X, Simons Foundation (2011); Collatz Prize, International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) (2011); George Pólya Prize, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2010); Information Theory Society Paper Award (2008); Alan T. Waterman Medal, National Science Foundation (2006); James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2005); Best Paper Award, European Association for Signal, Speech and Image Processing (2003); Department of Energy Young Investigator Award (2002); Third Vasil Popov Prize in Approximation Theory (2001); Direction des Recherches et Études Techniques (DRET) Fellowship for Doctoral Research Awarded on the Basis of Final Ranking, École Polytechnique (1993–1997); French National Scholarship Awarded on the Basis of Ranking at the National Examination for Admission, École Polytechnique (1990–1993); Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2001-2003); Recipient, Numerous Grants