Michael Fielding Barnsley (born 1946) is a British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, researcher and an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who has worked on

fractal compression Fractal compression is a lossy compression method for digital images, based on fractals. The method is best suited for textures and natural images, relying on the fact that parts of an image often resemble other parts of the same image. Fractal a ...

; he holds several

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s on the technology. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1972 and BA in mathematics from Oxford in 1968. In 1987 he founded Iterated Systems Incorporated, and in 1988 he published a book entitled ''Fractals Everywhere'' and in 2006 ''SuperFractals''. He has also published these scientific papers: "Existence and Uniqueness of Orbital Measures", "Theory and Applications of Fractal Tops", "A Fractal Valued Random Iteration Algorithm and Fractal Hierarchy", "V-variable fractals and superfractals", "Fractal Transformations" and "Ergodic Theory, Fractal Tops and Colour Stealing". He is also credited for discovering the

collage theorem In mathematics, the collage theorem characterises an iterated function system whose attractor is close, relative to the Hausdorff metric, to a given set. The IFS described is composed of contractions whose images, as a collage or union when mapp ...

. Iterated Systems was initially devoted to fractal image compression (epitomised by the

Barnsley fern The Barnsley fern is a fractal named after the British mathematician Michael Barnsley who first described it in his book ''Fractals Everywhere''.

), and later focused on image archive management and was renamed to MediaBin. It was acquired in 2003 by Interwoven, by which time Barnsley was no longer affiliated with the company. As of 2005, he is on the faculty of the Mathematical Sciences Institute of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

. Barnsley previously held a faculty position at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

.Michael Barnsley's CV
/ref> Michael Barnsley is the son of author

Gabriel Fielding Alan Gabriel Barnsley (pen name Gabriel Fielding, 25 March 1916 – 27 November 1986) was an English novelist whose works include: ''In the Time of Greenbloom'', ''The Birthday King'', ''Through Streets Broad and Narrow'' and ''The Women of Gui ...

(Alan Fielding Barnsley) and a descendant of

Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel '' Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...

References

External links

Michael Barnsley's Australian National University directory entrySuperFractals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnsley, Michael 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Chaos theorists University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Georgia Tech faculty Living people British textbook writers British chemists 1946 births