Google honors mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot with new Doodle

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot with a new Doodle on Friday, on what would have been his 96th birthday.

Mandelbrot is known as the father of fractal geometry. His research introduced the world to the concept of fractals, irregular and infinitely repeating mathematical shapes that are found in nature and everyday life.

Mandelbrot stands in front of a chalkboard and writes out Google's logo in the Doodle. One side of the chalkboard is animated.

The mathematician obtained his education in both Paris and the United States, earning a doctorate in 1952. He began working at the Watson Research Center at IBM in 1958 and used a typewriter to develop an algorithm that modeled landforms seen in nature.

Mandelbrot invented the term fractal geometry in 1975. He released his book The Fractal Geometry of Nature in 1982, with Mandelbrot's work altering the field of applied mathematics.

"Happy birthday to Benoit Mandelbrot, a man whose curiosity helped expand the way we see the world," Google said.

The company also thanked the family of Mandelbrot for their help on the Doodle.

"So much of science is about specializing, looking ever more closely at ever narrower parts of the world. Benoit was a rare person who looked more broadly and by this, saw more deeply," the mathematician's son Dr. Didier Mandelbrot said in a statement.