Very sad that Benoit Mandelbrot, father of fractal geometry, has died at the age of 85. One of those rare people, a mathematician who become known to the wider public. He was the man who made maths beautiful.
Mandelbrot set
He also gave inspiration to those who make crop circles.
Mandelbrot crop circle
There aren’t many mathematicians whose name could claim to be so instantly recognisable. There aren’t many mathematicians whose passing would have spawned such affectionate jokes. A sample from twitter:
RIP, Mandelbrot. Though I only knew a small portion of your work, I can only assume that the larger picture was exactly the same.
RIP Benoit Mandelbrot. Good job he wasn’t murdered. The police would have taken forever to draw the chalk outline.
Benoit B Mandelbrot. Apparently the ‘B’ stood for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’.
The world is a poorer place for his passing.