Ingrid Daubechies was born August 17, 1954, in Houthalen, Belgium. Her father, Marcel Daubechies, is a retired civil engineer and her mother, Simone, is a retired criminologist. Daubechies credits her parents with giving her a love of learning and her mother with teaching her by example to be her own person. Her father always encouraged her to pursue her interest in science. She has one brother.

As a small child, Daubechies displayed an insatiable interest in how things worked and in making things with her hands. She took up the hobbies of weaving and pottery at a young age and continues to produce objets d'art in both crafts. At the age of eight or nine Daubechies' favorite hobby was to sew clothes for her dolls because it fascinated her that flat pieces of material could be worked into curved surfaces that fit the angles of the doll's body. But she...