Barbara Burke Hubbard (born 1948) is an American

science journalist Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public. Origins Modern science journalism dates back to '' Digdarshan'' (means showing the d ...

, mathematics popularizer, textbook author, and book publisher, known for her books on

wavelet transform In mathematics, a wavelet series is a representation of a square-integrable (real number, real- or complex number, complex-valued) function (mathematics), function by a certain orthonormal series (mathematics), series generated by a wavelet. This ...

s and

multivariable calculus Multivariable calculus (also known as multivariate calculus) is the extension of calculus in one variable to calculus with functions of several variables: the differentiation and integration of functions involving several variables, rather th ...

Life

Burke Hubbard is the daughter of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' reporter Vincent J. Burke, and spent a year in high school living in Moscow when Burke was stationed there in 1964. She was an undergraduate at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, initially majoring in biology but switching to English, and graduating in 1969. She became a science writer for the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

and a journalist for ''

The Ithaca Journal ''The Ithaca Journal'' is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper published in Ithaca, New York. It is locally edited and printed in Johnson City, New York, and publishes Monday through Saturday. It has been owned by Gannett since 1912. Publications ...

'', and was the 1981 winner of the AAAS Westinghouse Science Journalism Award in the small newspaper category, for her articles on

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...

in ''The Ithaca Journal''. She married mathematician

John H. Hubbard John Hamal Hubbard (born October 6 or 7, 1945; the actual date is unknown) is an American mathematician and professor at Cornell University and the Université de Provence. He is well known for the mathematical contributions he made with Adrien ...

, with whom she has four children, and with her family has split her time between

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, France, with shorter-term stays elsewhere.

Books

Burke Hubbard is the author of a

popular mathematics Popular mathematics is the presentation of mathematics to an aimed general audience. The difference between recreational mathematics and popular mathematics is that recreational mathematics intends to be fun for the mathematical community, and p ...

book on

s, originally published in French as ''Ondes et ondelettes: la saga d’un outil mathématique'' (Pour la Science, 1995). It won the of the

Société mathématique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

, and Hubbard became the first winner of this prize who was not French. The English edition of the same book, ''The world according to wavelets: the story of a mathematical technique in the making'', was published in 1996 by

A K Peters A K Peters, Ltd. was a publisher of scientific and technical books, specializing in mathematics and in computer graphics, robotics, and other fields of computer science. They published the journals ''Experimental Mathematics'' and the '' Journal ...

, with a second edition in 1998. It was also translated into German by M. Basler as ''Wavelets: Die Mathematik der kleinen Wellen'' (Birkhäuser, 1997). With her husband, she wrote a textbook on

multivariate calculus Multivariable calculus (also known as multivariate calculus) is the extension of calculus in one variable to calculus with functions of several variables: the differentiation and integration of functions involving several variables, rather th ...

, ''Vector calculus, linear algebra, and differential forms: A unified approach'' (Prentice Hall, 1999; 5th ed., 2015). She has also translated the book ''Biochronological correlations'' by Jean Guex from French into English. In 2001, Burke Hubbard founded the mathematics book publisher Matrix Editions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke Hubbard, Burke 1948 births Living people American science writers Women science writers Mathematics popularizers Harvard University alumni French–English translators