Joseph Fourier’s methods (and their variants) are omnipresent in audio signal processing. However, it turns out that the underlying ideas took some time to penetrate the field of sound analysis and that different paths were first followed in the period immediately following Fourier’s pioneering work, with or without reference to him. This illustrates the interplay between mathematics and physics as well as the key role played by instrumentation, with notable inventions by outsiders to academia, such as Rudolph Koenig and Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville.

My three years of service as the editor-in-chief (EIC) of Signal Processing Magazine ( SPM ) are now coming to a close. During the past three years, many of us were deeply affected by serious political, social, and environmental events such as the war in Ukraine; protests for freedom in Iran; coups d’état in Africa; the COVID-19 pandemic; seisms in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco; huge floods in Libya and India; gigantic fires in North America and Southern Europe; and an avalanche of stones in the Alps, to name a few. In such a context, I believe that the IEEE slogan, “Advancing Technology for Humanity,” is incredibly relevant and timely.

Designing filters with perfect frequency responses (i.e., flat passbands, sharp transition bands, highly suppressed stopbands, and linear phase responses) is always the ultimate goal of any digital signal processing (DSP) practitioner. High-order finite impulse response (FIR) filters may meet these requirements when we put no constraint on implementation complexity. In contrast to FIR filters, infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, owing to their recursive structures, provide an efficient way for high-performance filtering at reduced complexity.

My end of term as IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) president is fast approaching. It has been an incredible experience that has provided me with so many opportunities to engage with our members around the globe, forge relationships with other IEEE Societies, and meet a diverse range of people that I hope will become active members of our Society in the future. It has been a great privilege to be at the helm of a Society that garners such a high level of worldwide respect and recognition.

The objectives of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine ( SPM ) are to propose, for any IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) member and beyond, a wide range of tutorial articles on both methods and applications in signal and image processing. The articles are divided into different categories: feature articles, column and forum articles, and articles in special issues, the specificities of which are detailed on the SPM webpage “Information for Authors - SPM”.