Robert Luke Devaney is an American mathematician. He is the Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Boston University, and served as the president of the Mathematical Association of America from 2013 to 2015. His research involves dynamical systems and fractals.

Benoit B. Mandelbrot was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of physical phenomena and "the uncontrolled element in life". He referred to himself as a "fractalist" and is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, which included coining the word "fractal", as well as developing a theory of "roughness and self-similarity" in nature.