Benoit Mandelbrot Benoit B. Mandelbrot Mandelbrot, Benoit <person> /ben'wa man'dl-bro/ Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The {IBM} scientist who wrote several original books on {fractals} and gave his name to the set he was discovered, the {Mandelbrot set} and coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break". (1997-07-02)