Arachne Kallisti

Benoit Mandelbrot died on Thursday night of pancreatic cancer, aged 85.

Mandelbrot was one of the first people to use computer visualisations to explore mathematical objects, and the first to find a practical use for the idea of the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension, the idea that some objects could be thought of as having fractional dimension. Fractal geometry has had applications in all sorts of areas of applied mathematics, from earthquake data to population dynamics. Mandelbrot even applied his ideas to explaining the global financial crisis.

Mandelbrot kept on working and teaching right up until the end of his life. Here's his talk from TED this July:



He will be much missed.