Mandelbrot’s fractals are not only gorgeous – they taught mathematicians how to model the real world

By Polina Vytnova, Lecturer in Mathematics, University of Surrey

At the beginning of my third year at university studying mathematics, I spotted an announcement. A visiting professor from Canada would be giving a mini-course of ten lectures on a subject called complex dynamics.

It happened to be a difficult time for me. On paper, I was a very good student with an average of over 90%, but in reality I was feeling very uncertain. It was time for us to choose a branch of mathematics in which to specialise, but I hadn’t connected to any of the subjects so far; they all felt too technical and dry.

So I decided to take a chance on the mini-course.…

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