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Benoit Mandelbrot

Polish-born, French and American mathematician (1924-2010) · France · Academics · Died at 85

Benoit Mandelbrot is read about 492 times a day, in 69 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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He coined the word "fractal" and showed that clouds, coastlines, and market crashes share hidden geometries - patterns lurking in what everyone else dismissed as chaos.

ScientistsAcademicMathematicsEconomicsScienceLiterature20th Century

A life in dates

2010Died14 October 20102005“Engineering is too important to wait for science.”In their wordsAs quoted in "Fractal Finance" by Greg Phelan in Yale Economic Review (Fall 2005)

“If you have a hammer, use it everywhere you can, but I do not claim that everything is fractal.”In their wordsAs quoted in "Fractal Finance" by Greg Phelan in Yale Economic Review (Fall 2005)

2003Japan PrizeAward2002William Procter Prize for Scientific AchievementAward1999John Scott AwardAwardSterling ProfessorAward1997“I conceived, developed and applied in many areas a new geometry of nature, which finds order in chaotic shapes and processes.”In their wordsAs quoted in Encyclopedia of World Biography (1997) edited by Thomson Gale

1993Wolf Prize in PhysicsAward1991Nevada MedalAward1989Officer of the Legion of HonourAward1987Humboldt PrizeAwardHumboldt Research FellowshipAward1986Franklin MedalAward1985Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to ScienceAward1982“Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.”In their wordsThe Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982)

“Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps Everyman to see the same world differently.”In their wordsThe Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982)

1977“Being a language, mathematics may be used not only to inform but also, among other things, to seduce.”In their wordsFractals : Form, chance and dimension (1977)

1972Fellow of the American Statistical AssociationAward1967Fellow of the Econometric SocietyAward1958IBM FellowAward1924Born20 November 1924

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

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In their own words 10

,
Benoit Mandelbrot
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself.

    Mar 2005, Lecture at the University of Maryland (March 2005), Own words

  2. Engineering is too important to wait for science.

    2005, As quoted in "Fractal Finance" by Greg Phelan in Yale Economic Review (Fall 2005), Own words

  3. If you have a hammer, use it everywhere you can, but I do not claim that everything is fractal.

    2005, As quoted in "Fractal Finance" by Greg Phelan in Yale Economic Review (Fall 2005), Own words

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Awards

Japan Prize2003
William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement2002
Lewis Fry Richardson Medal2000
John Scott Award1999
Sterling Professor1999
Honorary Doctorate1998
Wolf Prize in Physics1993
Nevada Medal1991
Officer of the Legion of Honour1989
Harvey Prize1989
Humboldt Research Fellowship1987
Humboldt Prize1987
Franklin Medal1986
Fellow of the American Geophysical Union1986
Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science1985
Fellow of the American Statistical Association1972
Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics1968
Fellow of the Econometric Society1967
IBM Fellow1958
Honorary Doctor of the University of St Andrews
Honorary Doctor of Tel Aviv University
Fellow of the American Physical Society

In their orbit

Spouse: Aliette Kagan

About this person

Mandelbrot fled Warsaw with his family in 1936 at eleven, landed in France, and after the war studied mathematics in Paris and aeronautics at Caltech. In 1958 he joined IBM for what became a 35-year run, where access to early computers let him do what no one had before: render fractal images and discover the Mandelbrot set in 1979-1980. He called himself a "fractalist," chasing "the art of roughness" across cotton futures, shorelines, and a dozen other fields - statistical physics, hydrology, linguistics, chaos theory - proving that visual complexity springs from simple rules. He taught economics at Harvard on sabbatical, then landed at Yale late in life as a Sterling Professor, the oldest in the university's history to receive tenure. He died in 2010; his autobiography came out two years later.

Country
France
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1924 to 2010 · aged 85

In common with Benoit

François EnglertBoth received Wolf Prize in PhysicsMasatoshi KoshibaBoth received Wolf Prize in PhysicsFrédéric Joliot-CurieBoth received Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to ScienceTim PalmerBoth received Lewis Fry Richardson Medal

Academics from France 2

Frédéric Passy61.8Anne Alombert61.1

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