From FFTs to Wavelets: An Interview with C. Sidney Burrus IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [128] SEPTEMBER 2005 [ dsp HISTORY ] 1053-5888/05/$20.00©2005IEEE From FFTs to Wavelets: An Interview with C. Sidney Burrus IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [128] SEPTEMBER 2005 SPM: It is a pleasure to welcome you to SPM’s DSP History corner. You are an avid reader, so we would like to select reading and writing as today’s main discussion thread. When did you start to enjoy reading math and engi- neering books? Dr. Burrus: As a child, I read science “comic books” where Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck would shrink to the point of exploring the inside of a molecule or atom. I read books on how motors and engines worked. SPM: Did books influence your school years? Dr. Burrus: More in college and grad- uate school, when browsing the books in the library was a favorite activity. SPM: How did you decide to become an engineer? Dr. Burrus: My father rebuilt the engine of our car once, and I was fasci- nated to see the “insides” of the car engine. Later, in high school, a friend and I built a “hot rod” using a 1932 Ford frame, a 1929 Ford roadster body, a 1948 Mercury V8 engine, and miscel- laneous other parts. I loved mathemat- ics (my mother was a high school math teacher) and understanding ideas that were not obvious. It was like trying to find out how a magician did a magic trick. I also wanted to create new things, not just understand things, hence the turn to engineering rather than science. Since I was fascinated with the magical side of engineering and because of my experience with “ham” radio (i.e., amateur radio), I decided to major in electrical engineer- ing, although chemical engineering had some of the same “understand magic” aspects. SPM: What determined your interest in digital signal processing (DSP)? Dr. Burrus: Around 1968, Tom Parks and I decided that the new area of DSP would use our rather theoretical engi- neering backgrounds and interests and move us into a very exciting and promis- ing new area. DSP for me was a wonderful mixture of applied math, theory, and prac- tical application that exactly fit my inter- ests. DSP is also closely associated with computer science, which was then a new and exciting discipline. This interest in DSP was strongly supported by our col- laboration with Texas Instruments, Inc. SPM: For our younger readers, would you underline your main DSP contribu- tions to date? Dr. Burrus: For me, the beginning of modern DSP research began in 1965 with the publication by Cooley and Tukey of their paper on the fast Fourier transform (FFT). I remember very well the excitement caused by that paper. There was an explosion of research in DSP in the late 1960s and early 1970s. My own contributions to the field have included a mixture of research results, books, teaching and advising students, and more recently, administration and application of technology to education. The research results have been in num- ber theory transforms, prime factor FFT algorithms, infinite impulse response (IIR) and finite impulse response (FIR) filter design, and wavelet system design. My books have tracked my research, with volumes on FFTs, filter design, wavelets, and an exercise book. Most recently, I have worked with Rich Baraniuk on his Connexions Project, which is a very exciting alternative publishing system described in the September 2004 issue of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION O ur guest in this issue, C. Sidney (Sid) Burrus, was born on 9 October 1934 in Abilene, Texas. He obtained his B.A. (1957), B.S. (1958), and M.S. (1960) degrees from Rice University, Houston, Texas, and the Ph.D. degree (1965) from Stanford University. In 1965, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at Rice University, where he is currently the Maxfield-Oshman professor of elec- trical engineering. He was a visiting professor at the University of Erlangen- Nuremberg, Germany (1975, 1980, and 1990) and a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989–1990). Dr. Burrus received the IEEE ASSP Society Technical Achievement Award for research in DSP (1985), the IEEE Signal Processing Society Award (1995), the IEEE Signal Processing Society Pioneer Award (1998), the IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Award (1975), and numerous teaching awards. As a quiet summer turns into a busy fall for the dean of engineering at Rice University, Dr. Burrus talks to the DSP History column editors, on behalf of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (SPM), about profession, books, and life. We hope that you will find the discussion as enchanting and intellectually stimulating as we did. —Adriana Dumitras and George Moschytz “DSP History” column editors adrianad@ieee.org, moschytz@isi.ee.ethz.ch