Benoit Mandelbrot, RIP

[The Straight Story]

Benoit Mandelbrot, RIP

Nothing in the news media yet, but many folks on Twitter and colleague Nassim Taleb are reporting that the father of fractal geometry is dead at age 85. We're not there yet, but someday Mandelbrot's name will be mentioned in the same breath as Einstein's as a genius who fundamentally shifted our perception of how the world works.

http://kottke.org/10/10/benoit-mandelbrot-rip

[Pavulon]

1. The man was a genius. His work was groundbreaking

and is the foundation for many advances of mathematics that are not attributed to him. many cryptographic and even materials engineering sciences link to his work.

there is a "smoothing" algorithm that is used in a cnc application that uses a progressive scan and cut that is directly based on his work.

The funny thing is that the guys who developed did not realize it was similar until years later.

Just rambling, but the man was an awesome and creative mind.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Survived by an infinite number of smaller selves...

Sad news. I heard him lecture once. Quite wonderful, though sometimes difficult to understand because of accent and age.

[pnorman]

3. BENOIT B. MANDELBROT

Mandelbrot's family emigrated to Paris in 1936 and survived the Second World War in Vichy France. He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1947, received his Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1948 and his doctorate in mathematics from the Faculté des Sciences de Paris in 1952. Until 1958, he worked for the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) or academia. Then he worked at IBM in the United States until he retired in 1993. At Yale University he started as Abraham Robinson Professor in 1987 and became Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences in 1999. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He also belongs to other learned societies and has received numerous awards and distinctions. For the Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1985) his citation read, "In the great tradition of natural philosophers past you looked at the world around you on a broader canvas." For the Franklin Medal for Signal and Eminent Service in Science (1986) his citation read, "For outstanding contributions to mathematics and the creation of the field of fractal geometry, and important and illuminating applications of this new concept to many fields of science." For the Wolf Prize for Physics (Israel, 1993) his citation ended by stating, "He has changed our view of nature." In 2003, Mandelbrot received the Japan Prize. Benoit Mandelbrot's web page is: http://www.math.yale.edu/mandelbrot. We recorded our conversation in Stockholm, during the "Symmetry 2000" Wenner-Gren symposium,1 September 13–16, 2000 and what follows are edited excerpts from our conversations, together with last minute additions by Dr. Mandelbrot.
Full Text: View full text in PDF format (622KB)

http://ebooks.worldscinet.com/ISBN/9781860944703/9781860944703_0025.html

[bemildred]

4. RIP. nt

[Tesha]

5. Game, match, Mandelbrot Set.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set