Benoit Mandelbrot
Mathematician
Mathematician and polymath who gained fame for popularizing the concept of fractal geometry. A decorated thinker, he was awarded the French Légion d'honneur in 1989, and served as the Sterling Professor for mathematical sciences at Yale University.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from École Polytechnique and Cal Tech, respectively. He earned his PhD in mathematical sciences from the University of Paris.
He won the Wolf Prize for Physics in 1993. His 1982 book The Fractal Geometry of Nature was named in American Scientist's one hundred books of 20th century science.
He emigrated from Poland to France with his family when he was 11 years old.
He was sponsored by John von Neumann to study at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey.