Benoit Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw in 1924 to a Jewish family. In 1936 he moved to Paris, where his mathematician uncle had a strong influence on his education. He spent much of the war hiding in the French countryside. Later he discovered fractal geometry. He has shown how many complex phenomena such as coastlines, galaxy clusters and share prices can be described as fractals. He is Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University, and an emeritus fellow at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York
What is it like seeing the Mandelbrot set emblazoned on T-shirts…
