Benoit Mandelbrot, Father of Fractal (1924-2010, Year of Entry: 1944)

At the age of 11, Polish immigrant Benoît Mandelbrot arrived in Paris where he met his uncle Szolem Mandelbrojt, a professor of mathematics at the Collège de France. After graduating from l’X, he became a researcher at IBM. Lauded as the father of fractal geometry, Mandelbrot made his name in a wide number of fields, namely mathematics; physics, with turbulence modeling; chemistry, with fractal electrodes; biology, with the fractal structure of the lung; astronomy, with galaxy distribution; geography, with his study of the fractal structure of the coast of Brittany; and signal processing, with his study of the floods of the Nile. In economics, he also produced a fierce critique of financial mathematical models, demonstrating that they underestimate several risks. For his achievements, he received the most illustrious international distinctions, including the Japan Prize and the Wolf Prize.