Benoit Mandelbrot, Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University, has been awarded the very prestigious Japan Prize by The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan.
Professor Mandelbrot is the main focus and subject of two documentaries from Gordon Films of the UK - COLOURS OF INFINITY and CLOUDS ARE NOT SPHERES which Beyond have been licencing around the world.
The international prize recognizes “original and outstanding achievements that contribute to the progress of science and technology and the promotion of peace and prosperity of mankind.”
Mandelbrot is known internationally as the “father of fractals,” and, in 1993, the Wolf Prize for Physics cited him for “having changed our view of nature.”
The prize will be awarded in the presence of the Emperor of Japan on April 25, 2003, during a festive “Japan Prize Week”. This year, one of the $400,000 awards will be shared by Benoit Mandelbrot and Professor James York of the University of Maryland, under the category of “Science and Technology of Complexity.”
“Fifty years ago, when I began to study complexity for its own sake, I was very lonely,” Mandelbrot said. “Today, it is the theme of this great prize and I am utterly delighted to be chosen as a recipient.
Studying diverse shapes in nature and culture, Mandelbrot saw that the theory with which mathematical physics had attempted to describe Nature was radically flawed and incomplete, He identified or created suitable mathematical tools, coined the term “fractal” to denote those objects, and created an entirely new system of geometry. He startled scientists, mathematicians and artists alike by unveiling a dramatic new approach for describing what had previously seemed indescribable. His revolutionary new paradigm was described as having revealed order and simplicity in systems with a seemingly high degree of disorder, irregularity, and complexity.
published: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 
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