Benoit B. Mandelbrot (1924-2010)

Abstract

This obituary may be quite surprising to many, if not most, readersof the Journal of Plankton Research as both the man himself and theword “fractal” he created to describe the complexity of forms andshapes occurring in nature might still be quite unfamiliar to mostplankton biologists and ecologists. The Web of Science (accessed3 January 2011) returns 17202 and 39 855 papers including the word“fractal” in their title and topic, respectively. Fractals are indeeda prolific topic, and have found applications in nearly all scientificfields, including plankton research.The man behind the word “fractal”, Benoît B. Mandelbrot (Fig. 1),a Polish-born French mathematician, often referred to as the fatherof fractals, died on 14 October 2010 at the age of 85. He dedicatedhis life to study the complexity of patterns and processes arisingin fields as diverse as geology, medicine, cosmology, engineeringand finance. B. B. Mandelbrot wrote more than 200 publications, reachingnearly 13 000 citations and an H-index of 47; a list of publicationsselected for their potential interest to a wide audience is givenin Table I.