Article July 11, 2005 Issue

PRACTICING THE SCIENCE OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

A conversation with IBM research scientist JOAN MITCHELL

with contributions from JOAN MITCHELL

"Tell me it's impossible and the world needs it, and I'm interested." Dr. Joan L. Mitchell has backed up those words with 58 patents, granted for her technology innovations at IBM. Dr. Mitchell is now an IBM Fellow with full freedom to explore scientific and technical frontiers. She was a leading member of the global committee that developed the standard for JPEG, the digital compression image format that enables pictures to be transmitted between computers. As a major technical achievement and a feat of global corporate diplomacy, JPEG is viewed as something of a miracle in technology circles. Joan Mitchell sees miracles as normal evidence of God's presence in human lives. She believes that everyone has a "direct report" relationship with the divine Mind.

The Sentinel's Warren Bolon began their conversation by asking Mitchell about her path to a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois.

I had some doubts as a college freshman about whether I could study physics. Then I realized studying matter in most of physics is in fact math equations that try to model what's believed to be the universe. If I regarded matter as a fairy tale and learned what I could from it but wasn't fooled by it—you know, like goblins and ghosts, you don't have to believe in them—I could still enjoy the study and learn the moral of the story.

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