Larger than life mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot has passed away. He died last Thursday at age 85, of pancreatic cancer. Perhaps best known for his pioneering work on fractal geometry (he coined the term "fractal" and wrote the original book) Mandelbrot was also a significant intellectual force in the field of finance. His book "The (Mis)behavior of Markets - a Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward" was a best seller and won the financial book of the year award. Mandelbrot was the beloved mentor of Nassim Taleb who authored "The Black Swan". He and Taleb made frequent joint appearances on financial news shows as the present economic crisis unfolded.
I loved his wry, gentle manner of presentation, which was quite accessible to the layman. (He reminded me of physicist Al Bartlett in that respect, who can also tell us we're screwed, with a smile, and keep the audience chuckling.) Another giant of science, one of the most important mathematicians of the post WWII era, gone...
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2 comments:
Can you provide some accessible examples of his work? Sounds like a chap to be remembered....
Be happy to. First, if you like to read and have any interest in the financial meltdown, I'd recommend his book "The (mis)behavior of markets" mentioned above. There should be used copies at Amazon. Then there's "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" which is his seminal work. Amazon should have most of the books he authored or co-authored.
The most accessible stuff is on Youtube - there are a number of videos of his appearances with Taleb posted there. Here's a link to one financial talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLFkQdiXPbo
You'll also find a number of hypnotic videos of fractal geometric progressions, known as Mandelbrot Sets, posted at youtube.
Depending on how far you went with math, physics and biology, he was widely published in those disciplines in the academic world.
Thanks for stopping by, CA.
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