Mathematician wins top national science prize

Carl de Boor, a mathematician and computer scientist, has won the 2003 National Medal of Science, the most prestigious science award in the country.

Administered by the National Science Foundation, the National Medal of Science has since 1959 recognized pioneers in a range of scientific fields. A committee of scientists and engineers appointed by the president of the United States annually evaluates the award nominees.

A professor emeritus of computer sciences and mathematics, de Boor will receive his medal at a White House ceremony on March 14.

Nine UW–Madison scientists have received the esteemed medal in past years. An expert in numerical analysis, de Boor is the second university mathematician to be honored.

“This quite took my breath away,” says de Boor. “I had never thought of myself as belonging to that class [of scientists]”. John Marburger, President George Bush’s science adviser, personally telephoned de Boor to inform him about the medal.

“Carl de Boor’s selection for the nation’s highest scientific award reflects the significance of his work and the tradition of excellence among our mathematics and computer sciences faculty,” says Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science.

The author of more than 150 papers and four books, de Boor has earned world recognition for his work on spline functions, mathematical expressions that describe free-form curves and surfaces. In particular, de Boor developed simpler approaches to complex spline calculations, a contribution that revolutionized computer-aided geometric design. His work is now routinely applied in a range of fields that rely on precise geometry, including the use of special effects in films, and in the aircraft and automotive industries.

De Boor grew up in East Germany and came to the United States in 1959. He received a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1966 and joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1972. Until 2003, de Boor was the Steenbock Professor of Mathematical Sciences and the P.L. Chebyshev Professor of Mathematics and Computer Sciences. Currently, de Boor is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington.