mathematics

Mathias Fink

Mathias Fink is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mathias Fink rather than just read about it. In short: Mathias Fink (born 18 October 1945) is a French physicist, professor at ESPCI Paris and member of the French Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his contributions to wave physics in complex media and its applications in imaging and telecommunications, such as time reversal signal processing.

Key takeaways

Mathias Fink belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mathias Fink to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mathias Fink from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mathias Fink (born 18 October 1945) is a French physicist, professor at ESPCI Paris and member of the French Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his contributions to wave physics in complex media and its applications in imaging and telecommunications, such as time reversal signal processing.

Life and career Born in Grenoble, Mathias Fink received a M.S. degree in mathematics from Paris University, and the Ph.D. degree in solid state physics. Then he moved to medical imaging and received the Doctorat es-Sciences degree from Paris University in the area of ultrasonic focusing for real-time medical imaging under the direction of Pierre Alais (1978). In 1981 he was appointed Professor at the University of Strasbourg. After a stay as a visiting professor at the University of Irvine in the radiology department he returned to France to become professor at the Paris Diderot University (Paris 7). In 1990 and founded the "Waves and Acoustics Laboratory" at ESPCI whose director he was and which became the Institut Langevin in 2009. 2005 he was appointed professor at ESPCI, where he now is professor emeritus and holds the Georges Charpak chair. Fink pioneered the development of time-reversal mirrors and Time Reversal Signal Processing. He developed many applications of this concept from ultrasound therapy, medical imaging, non-destructive testing, underwater acoustics, seismic imaging, tactile objects, to electromagnetic telecommunications. He also pioneered innovative medical imaging methods: transient elastography, supersonic shear imaging and multi-wave imaging that are now implemented by several companies. Six companies with close to 400 employees have been created from his research: Echosens, Sensitive Object, Supersonic Imagine, Time Reversal Communications, Cardiawave, and GreenerWave.

Honors and awards 1994 Grand prix de la créativité SNECMA 1995 Foucault prize of the French Physical Society 2002 elected to the French Academy of Engineering 2003 elected to the French Academy of Sciences 2006 Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America 2007 Officer of the French Legion (since 2017 Commander) 2008 Louis Néel prize of the French Physical Society 2008/2009 Liliane Bettencourt Chair of Technological Innovation at the Collège de France 2014 Edwin H. Land Medal of the Optical Society and IS&T 2015 international colloquium in honor of his 70th birthday

Selected works Fink, M.; Cardoso, J.-F. (1984). "Diffraction effects in pulse-echo measurement". IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics. 31 (4): 313–329. doi:10.1109/T-SU.1984.31512. S2CID 42526365. Derode, A.; Fink, M. (1994). "The notion of coherence in optics and its application to acoustics". Eur. J. Phys. 15 (2): 81–90. Bibcode:1994EJPh...15...81D. doi:10.1088/0143-0807/15/2/008. S2CID 250913039. Prada, C; F, M. (1994). "Eigenmodes of the time reversal operator: a solution to selective focusing in multiple target media". Wave Motion. 20 (2): 151–163. Bibcode:1994WaMot..20..151P. doi:10.1016/0165-2125(94)90039-6. Roux, P.; de Rosny, J.; Tanter, M.; Fink, M. (1997). "The Aharonov-Bohm effect revisited by an acoustic time-reversal mirror" (PDF). Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (17): 3170–3173. Bibcode:1997PhRvL..79.3170R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.3170. Mathias Fink (1997). "Time Reversed Acoustics". Physics Today. 50 (3): 34–40. Bibcode:1997PhT....50c..34F. doi:10.1063/1.881692. Fink, Mathias; Prada, Claire (2000). "Time-reversed acoustics - Topical review". Rep. Prog. Phys. 63: 1933. doi:10.1088/0034-4885/63/12/202. S2CID 250901143. Bercoff, J.; Tanter, M.; Fink, M. (2004). "Supersonic Shear Imaging: a new technique for soft tissues elasticity mapping". IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 51 (4): 374–409. doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2004.1295425. PMID 15139541. S2CID 99105. Tanter, Mickael; Fink, Mathias (2014). "Ultrafast imaging in biomedical ultrasound". IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 61 (1): 102–119. doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2014.2882. PMID 24402899. M. Fink (2009). Renversement du temps, ondes et innovation (in French). Ed. Fayard. ISBN 978-2213644134.

References

External links

"CV at the Institute Langevin". Retrieved 2020-02-07.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mathias Fink

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mathias Fink claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mathias Fink before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mathias Fink ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mathias Fink

In research: Mathias Fink appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mathias Fink in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mathias Fink is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century French physicists, 21st-century French physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mathias Fink outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mathias Fink in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mathias Fink means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mathias Fink out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mathias Fink in simple terms?

Why does Mathias Fink matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mathias Fink?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mathias Fink.