Fractals in the Fundamental and Applied Sciences: Proceedings of the First Ifip Conference on Fractals in the Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Lisb

by Heinz-Otto Peitgen

This volume contains the proceedings of the first IFIP conference on fractals. The mathematical concept of fractal was coined by B.B. Mandelbrot in the early seventies to characterize objects with self-similar structures at all levels. Now the field of fractals is being subject to intensive research and an extensive growth of applications in many sciences. This first IFIP conference, intended as a start of periodic conferences on fractals, enables a productive cross fertilization of ideas among specialists in fractals and in information processing. In addition to the volume's 44 colour illustrations, on page v is a rare view of fractals and the Portuguese architecture at the time of the navigators, produced by Master Lima de Freitas, a leading Portuguese artist and member of the conference organizing committee. The design illustrates the symbiosis of mathematics and human artifacts represented by the real world.

461 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Peitgen studied mathematics, physics and economics from 1965 until 1971 in Bonn, later working for six years at the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn under Christian Fenske, where he received his PhD in 1973. His doctoral dissertation was Asymptotische Fixpunktsätze und Stabilität (en: Asymptotic fixed-point theorems and stability).

After receiving his habilitation in 1977, he first taught as private docent in Bonn before obtaining a professorship for mathematics at the University of Bremen.

In 1986 Peitgen and Peter Richter published their lavishly illustrated and very influential book The Beauty of Fractals, which was amongst the first books popularizing the concept of fractals to the general public. This book was followed up in 1988 by The Science of Fractal Images and in 1992 by a large and authoritative volume entitled Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science, written in collaboration with Hartmut Jürgens and Dietmar Saupe.

Peitgen is director of the Centre for Complex Systems and Visualization (Centrum für Complexe Systeme und Visualisierung - CeVis) at the University of Bremen. His research work emphasises dynamical systems, numerical analysis, image analysis, and data analysis, as well as the use of computers in image-based medical diagnostics.