Benoit mandelbrot

Benoit Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Polish-born, French and American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of physical phenomena and "the uncontrolled element in life". He is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, which included coining the word "fractal", as well as developing a theory of "roughness and self-similarity" in nature.

Early life and education

Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw, Poland, into a family with a strong academic tradition. During his early years, Mandelbrot was introduced to mathematics by two of his uncles, one of whom, Szolem Mandelbrojt, was a mathematician who resided in Paris. Mandelbrot moved to France with his family when he was 11.

Career

Mandelbrot spent most of his career in the United States, where he worked for 35 years at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He later became a professor of mathematical sciences at Yale University, where he retired in 2005.

Fractal Geometry

Mandelbrot's innovative work was primarily in the area of fractal geometry, the mathematical study of patterns that are self-similar across different scales. He coined the term "fractal" to describe these phenomena in 1975, and he wrote about them in a book called The Fractal Geometry of Nature in 1982. His work has been widely recognized for its contributions to our understanding of complex natural and mathematical phenomena.

Legacy

Mandelbrot's work has had a vast impact on a wide range of scientific and mathematical fields. He has been recognized with numerous awards for his contributions, including the Wolf Prize for Physics in 1993. His work on fractals has also inspired artists and musicians and has been used in technological developments in fields such as computer graphics and image compression.

See also

• Fractal
• Fractal dimension
• Mandelbrot set
• Julia set

External links

• Official website