Science in Action

This book is based on lectures given at a Summer School on inverse problems and their applications, sponsored by CEA (the French Atomic Energy Commission), EDF (Electricite de France) and INRIA (the French National Research Institute for Computer Science and Automation) and held in Breau-Sans-Nappe in July 1985. The lectures are aimed primarily at undergraduate or graduate students and researchers in physics, applied mathematics and engineering who are interested in the fundamental problem of extracting useful information from physical data. The methods described herein are therefore applicable to a multitude of research fields, including medical imaging, astronomy, geophysics, civil engineering, radar sounding and non-destructive testing. In short, this book is a primer for any study in which a large number of parameters are to be extracted from a large number of data.