Benoît Mandelbrot to Give Second Einstein Public Lecture

March 10, 2006

Providence, RI:

Benoît Mandelbrot, the "father of fractals," will be giving the Einstein Public Lecture: The Nature of Roughness in Mathematics, Science, and Art on Saturday, April 29 in Jack Adams Hall in the César Chávez Student Center at San Francisco State University. The lecture is aimed at members of the general public. Admission is free. The lecture is second in a series named in honor of the centennial of Einstein’s annus mirabilis.

Benoît Mandelbrot is the founder of fractal geometry. He is also an inspiring and eloquent public speaker. In his study of disparate physical, mathematical, and social phenomena, Mandelbrot has discovered remarkable order in complicated and seemingly unrelated data, thereby changing the way we look at the world. He has thus stimulated enormous public and professional interest in the beauty and power of fractals, and in the general question of "roughness" in nature.

Mandelbrot is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Science at Yale University, and IBM Fellow Emeritus at the IBM Research Center. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and he is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees. His most recent book is The (Mis)Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the AMS and by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, and is part of the 2006 Spring AMS Western Sectional Meeting, hosted by the San Francisco State University Department of Mathematics. More information about the lecture series is available online.

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