HE WAS shaped by war, migration and poverty – though these travails only made the late French-American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot stronger. Throughout his life, the man who discovered the mathematics behind fractal geometry insisted on bucking trends, maintaining a fierce individuality. He was nothing short of a maverick.
“The man who discovered the maths behind fractals bucked trends and kept his fierce individuality”
The Fractalist, Mandelbrot’s account of his own life, begins with details of his forebears and ends with a photo of him in his 80s surrounded by grandchildren. But he often departs from the linear chronology, spiralling out into seemingly misplaced vignettes. This disjointed…
