Jump to content

Michael Frame

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Frame is an American mathematician and retired Yale professor.[1] He is a co-author, along with Amelia Urry, of Fractal Worlds: Grown, Built, and Imagined.[2] At Yale, he was a colleague of Benoit Mandelbrot and helped Mandelbrot develop a curriculum within the mathematics department.[1]

Early years and education

[edit]

Michael Frame was born in 1951 and grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia.[3] After leaving his physics major because the lab requirement was "something in biophysics with killing frogs,"[3] Frame, a vegetarian, received a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Union College as a first-generation college student.[3] In 1978, he completed a PhD in mathematics at Tulane University.

Teaching career

[edit]

Michael Frame came to work at Yale University at the invitation of his colleague Benoit Mandelbrot. At Yale, Frame called himself "the stupidest guy in the department...the dimmest bulb in the pack here," and focused on his teaching contributions.[4] He received the McCredie Prize for best use of technology in teaching at Yale College, the Dylan Hixon '88 Prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences, and the Yale Phi Beta Kappa chapter's DeVane medal for undergraduate teaching.[1]

Work with Mandelbrot

[edit]

Benoit Mandelbrot includes a section on Michael Frame in his posthumously published autobiography The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick.[5] In the section, called "Michael Frame, Friend and Colleague," he calls Frame an "indispensable" professor.[5]

In 1997, Mandelbrot and Frame held a meeting of teachers of fractal geometry.[5] According to Mandelbrot, as far as he knew, this was the "first scientific meeting totally dedicated to the teaching of fractals.[5] This eventually culminated in the 2002 publication of the book Fractals, Graphics, and Mathematics Education, which was co-authored by Frame and Mandelbrot.[5][6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Michael Frame | Faculty of Arts and Sciences". fas.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  2. ^ "Fractal Worlds | Yale University Press". yalebooks.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  3. ^ a b c "Small Things and Big Things – The New Journal". 26 October 2011. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  4. ^ Yu, Sherwin (2010-04-24). "The Frame-Work of Fractals". Yale Scientific Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  5. ^ a b c d e Mandelbrot, Benoit B. (14 January 2014). The fractalist : memoir of a scientific maverick (First Vintage books ed.). New York. ISBN 978-0-307-38991-6. OCLC 868856534.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Fractals, graphics, and mathematics education. Frame, Michael., Mandelbrot, Benoit B. [Washington, DC]: Mathematical Association of America. 2002. ISBN 0-88385-169-5. OCLC 50032121.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)