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The father of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot, is dead

Posted in Change in Science, Complexity, fractal, Maths, News Science, Philosophy of Science, Society by e1saman on October 17, 2010

The mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot who developed the geometrical shapes, fractal, died at the age of 85 years.

The French and American nationality, Mandelbrot, named and developed the fractal theory as a mathematical way to capture the infinite complexity of nature.

Fractals are used for measuring natural phenomena, that were regarded as non-measurable, such as clouds or coastlines. These discoveries have applications in many fields such as geology, medicine, astronomy, mechanical engineering, but also economics and anatomy.

According to his family, Benoît Mandelbrot died in Cambridge, Massachusetts from pancreatic cancer.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a statement paid tribute to the great mathematician, “a strong spirit, authentic, never hesitated to make innovations and to fight against established views.

Benoît Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw on November 20, 1924, in a Jewish family of Lithuanian origin. To escape the Nazi threat fled to France with his family, and then moved to the United States after the Second World War.
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A very good video about fractals and Mandelbrot

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=8570098277666323857&hl=en&fs=true

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