Mandelbrot's family emigrated to Paris in 1936 and survived the Second World War in Vichy France. He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1947, received his Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1948 and his doctorate in mathematics from the Faculté des Sciences de Paris in 1952. Until 1958, he worked for the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) or academia. Then he worked at IBM in the United States until he retired in 1993. At Yale University he started as Abraham Robinson Professor in 1987 and became Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences in 1999. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He also belongs to other learned societies and has received numerous awards and distinctions. For the Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1985) his citation read, "In the great tradition of natural philosophers past you looked at the world around you on a broader canvas." For the Franklin Medal for Signal and Eminent Service in Science (1986) his citation read, "For outstanding contributions to mathematics and the creation of the field of fractal geometry, and important and illuminating applications of this new concept to many fields of science." For the Wolf Prize for Physics (Israel, 1993) his citation ended by stating, "He has changed our view of nature." In 2003, Mandelbrot received the Japan Prize. Benoit Mandelbrot's web page is:
http://www.math.yale.edu/mandelbrot. We recorded our conversation in Stockholm, during the "Symmetry 2000" Wenner-Gren symposium,1 September 13–16, 2000 and what follows are edited excerpts from our conversations, together with last minute additions by Dr. Mandelbrot.
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