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FAU’S COLLEGE OF SCIENCE HONORS INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED FRACTAL MATHEMATICIANS
BENOIT MANDELBROT AND HEINZ-OTTO PEITGEN
INDUCTEES IN 2006 HALL OF FAME
BOCA RATON, FL--February 21, 2006 -- Two of the world’s most esteemed mathematicians, one, the creator of fractal geometry and, the other, who has successfully applied these theories to medical diagnostics, today were inducted into Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (FAU CESCoS) Second Annual Hall of Fame – Drs. Benoit Mandelbrot and Heinz-Otto Peitgen. FAU President Frank T. Brogan opened the ceremony with welcoming remarks and Dr. Nathan Dean, dean of FAU CESCoS, introduced the inductees and presented the awards.
At this year’s Distinguished Lecture and Awards Ceremony, Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot gave a presentation on “The Fractal Wonderland,” derived from the word he coined less than 20 years ago to describe how, in the most simplistic terms, through math there is a way to find order in nature and social phenomena. In addition, he was joined by fellow Hall of Fame inductee, FAU’s Dr. Heinz Otto-Peitgen, professor of Mathematical Sciences and Biomedical Science, who gave a short lecture on how he arrived at this juncture in his career, combining math and medicine, using fractals as a tool to enhance MRIs in the detection of breast cancer – “From Fractals to the Diagnosis and Surgery of Cancer.”
A fractal is a shape that is self-similar. It is a mathematically generated image that is rough, irregular and complex, so that the tiny parts of the fractal resemble larger parts. All shapes in reality are fractal in design, as none can be reduced to a mere line, hence the linear logic of calculus, geometry and algebra.
This is the second annual FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Hall of Fame Distinguished Lecture and Awards Ceremony. In 2005, Dr. James D. Watson, Nobel Laureate in Medicine, who discovered the double helix structure of DNA, and FAU’s Herbert Weissbach, Ph.D., a distinguished research professor and director of FAU’s Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, were the inaugural inductees into the Hall of Fame.
¨ Benoit Mandelbrot, Ph.D., is a Bartelle Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences-Yale University, and IBM Fellow Emeritus (Physics). He is considered one of the most creative mathematicians in history and is best known as the founder of fractal geometry. His seminal work, “The Fractal Geometry of Nature,” first introduced and explained the concepts of this new vision. Dr. Mandelbrot is responsible for most of the creation of fractal geometry and chaos theory, two concepts that threaten to change the way math is viewed in the world today. He has received numerous awards and taught at universities around the globe.
Dr. Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1924. His education was mostly self-taught before his family emigrated to France in 1936. Although he was endangered during World War II, Dr. Mandelbrot managed to attend Lycée Rolin and the Ecole Polytechnic, and later Caltech and Princeton, on the recommendation of his mentor John von Neumann. He then found work at IBM, where he used the computer to create his famous Mandelbrot Set.
¨ FAU’s Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Ph.D., professor of Mathematical Sciences and Biomedical Science, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Bremen, Germany, has successfully combined and applied math to medicine. By employing fractal theoretical ideas, he has made it possible for radiologists to use MRI as a tool in the detection of breast cancer. Dr. Peitgen has worked closely with Boca Raton Community Hospital’s Center for Breast Care on the development of this project, which has proven to be more effective than traditional mammography in providing radiologists with a three-dimensional detailed view of possible tumors. He has applied similar techniques to detecting liver tumors.
Dr. Peitgen received his PhD. in mathematics in 1973 from University of Bonn. In 1992, he was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Dr. Peitgen’s 1986 book, "The Beauty of Fractals," helped popularize the concept of fractals to the general public. This was followed in 1988 by The Science of Fractal Images and, in 1992, by “Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science,” co-authored with Hartmut Jürgens and Dietmar Saupe. In 1995, Dr. Peitgen founded the Center for Medical Diagnostic Systems and Visualization (MeVis) GmbH, which he chairs as president and CEO. For over twelve years, Dr. Peitgen has been involved in and championed a long-term project funded by the National Science Foundation to use the excitement of fractals to improve mathematics teaching in the public schools. He also gave a short presentation.
Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Second Annual Hall of Fame Distinguished Lecture and Awards Ceremony was underwritten by Gold sponsor Boca Raton Community Hospital, and Silver sponsors Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP and NABI Pharmaceuticals.
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To view the lecture via webcast, click on FAU’s homepage at www.fau.edu and look for the link related to the Mandelbrot and Peitgen lectures. For more information on the event, contact Patsy Jones, 561-297-1307.
For further information about FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, you may contact Margie J. Walden, director of development for the FAU CESCoS, (561) 297-0007, mwalden@fau.edu.
All media queries should be directed to Fran Schwartz, Starmark International, 954-874-9000/954-205-2216 mobile
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FAU’S Charles E. Schmidt College of Science is comprised of seven departments and six specialized research centers – Biological Sciences, Biomedical Science, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Geosciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physics, Psychology, Center for Geo-Information Sciences, Florida Center for Environmental Studies, Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Center of Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology, and the Center for Cryptology and Information Security.
FloridaAtlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the university serves 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts eight colleges - the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
