Benoît B. Mandelbrot (1924-2010), Father of Fractal Geometry has died.

[Prokofiev]

The first tributes, from this AFP link http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeEofMMk2ALwd4B0N06yt80Ho3DA?docId=CNG.8b21ca4f0fe5ded152fb7235fcbc6338.6d1

French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to Mandelbrot, saying he had "a powerful, original mind that never shied away from innovation and battering preconceived ideas," according to a statement published by his office. Mandelbrot had been "very critical of the prevailing banking models", adding that his "warnings were not heeded," Sarkozy said. "France is proud to have received Benoit Mandelbrot and to have allowed him to benefit from the best education."

David Mumford, a professor of mathematics at Brown University, told the Times that Mandelbrot had effectively revolutionized his field."Applied mathematics had been concentrating for a century on phenomena which were smooth, but many things were not like that: the more you blew them up with a microscope the more complexity you found," the Times quoted him as saying. "He was one of the primary people who realized these were legitimate objects," Mumford added.

Mathematicians and economists were among those who reacted swiftly to Mandelbrot's death on the Internet. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the statistician and philosopher best known for the book "The Black Swan," turned over his website to mourn Mandelbrot's passing. The page featured only the words: "Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010, A Greek among Romans."

Chris Anderson, the organizer of the TED conferences that feature addresses from prominent thinkers drawn from a variety of fields, offered his condolences on his Twitter page.
He described Mandelbrot, who addressed the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference earlier this year, as "an icon who changed how we see the world."

[The Rev]

I don't know if you guys are already aware of this, but there is a huge repository of written material by and about Dr. Mandelbrot on his Yale website.  Here's a link to the virtual books/articles:

http://www.math.yale.edu/mandelbrot/webbooks.html

The Rev

[teamfresh]

his legacy will live on forever, without his birth my life would have been geometrically imperfect - I thank the wonder of life for what he brought to the people.

[jehovajah]

Everything seems to be gearing up. Tracking, obituary, even the bad taste humour...

Laughing in the face of bad times is a time honored way of coping.

If I may (and nobody be offended at this) I'd like to share two of the bad taste humour comments that actually made me laugh!

On one board somebody posted this:

Police found his body in the living room, but when they tried to trace a chalk outline, they found they had to make tighter and tighter turns at the edges until the outline became transcendental and stuff.

And on another was a simple:

Oh, frak.  

If anyone has any others that were truly funny, and not disrespectful, I say it's OK to share them.  (If Trifox disagrees, he can delete this post!)  (I'd understand)

We can mourn his passing, but let's not forget to celebrate his Life at the same time!

Laughing is good and of course good taste humour, insightful humour, and consoling humour is brilliant!
I guess insensitive humour may be nearer to what i am referring to, but all these things are a judgement call, and what may leave a bad taste in my mouth may be truly funny, when not in shock!
Benoit Mandelbrot a rough life gave him and us a rough idea of a rough scale of all forms; chaos and complexity aren't tough,just rough!

[MarkJayBee]

Sad news, I fervently hope he is deep zooming towards his hearts desire....

[kek]

Rest in Peace Benoit.

[twinbee]

Such a great contribution to this world - rest in peace Benoit Mandelbrot. His spirit lives on at least (even literally if you believe there's something past this life.)

[Tabasco Raremaster]

Wondering if Julia saved the last dance for you Benoît.
Thank you for upgrading our world with your joyful knowledge.
You are a true legend.

[KRAFTWERK]

 

This is so sad... My Hommage: http://mandelwerk.deviantart.com/#/d30zvng

[Prokofiev]

My small tribute.
14th of october 2010. Benoit starts iterating towards infinity. see : http://prokofiev2.deviantart.com/#/d30zx4j 

[fracmonk]

How can I have such grief for someone I never met?  A very rare sort of guy, especially these days, and we'll miss him badly.

[trafassel]

Fractal Geometry was for me one reason to study mathematics ( ... and keep on studying in bad times). Rest in peace Benoit Mandelbrot. I hope, sometimes the fascinating field of fractal geometry gets the attention in the academic world which it deserves.

This picture is a regular Mandelbrot set at:
0.295912031897636 < x < 0.296179346261922; 0.681914929423316<y< 0.682182243787602 with 7000 iterations.

It was painted as black and white picture in a virtual 96000x96000 bitmap. Afterwards i change the resulution to 1200x1200 to get a smother grayscale picture. Render time was 16h on a iCore 7 Laptop.


   

[rickz65]

 
Thank You, Dr. Mandelbrot ! You have given me/us one of the greatest gifts a person can give, something to wonder and be fascinated about.
My deepest sympathies to his Wife, his Sons, his Grandchildren, his Friends and his Colleagues.

(... after 3 days of mourning ... sorry I can't seem to say something more ... definitely more in my mind and heart ...)
Thanks to All for the Posts here and for the links ... they have been a help ...
 

[hobold]

Fractal Geometry was for me one reason to study mathematics

Same here.

[Cyclops]

Oh I never knew about this until now- a sad loss to us all! Rest in peace Mr M!