Aristid Lindenmayer

Aristid Lindenmayer
Born	November 17, 1925(1925-11-17) Budapest
Died	October 30, 1989(1989-10-30) (aged 63)
Nationality	Hungarian
Known for	L-systems

Aristid Lindenmayer (November 17, 1925 – October 30, 1989) was a Hungarian biologist. In 1968 he developed a type of formal languages that is today called L-systems or Lindenmayer Systems. Using those systems Lindenmayer modelled the behaviour of cells of plants. L-systems nowadays are also used to model whole plants.

Plant generated using an L-system in 3D.

Lindenmayer worked with yeast and filamentous fungi and studied the growth patterns of various types of algae, such as the blue/green bacteria Anabaena catenula. Originally the L-systems were devised to provide a formal description of the development of such simple multicellular organisms, and to illustrate the neighbourhood relationships between plant cells. Later on, this system was extended to describe higher plants and complex branching structures.

Publications

• Aristid Lindenmayer, "Mathematical models for cellular interaction in development." J. Theoret. Biology, 18:280—315, 1968.
• Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw; Aristid Lindenmayer (1990). The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (The Virtual Laboratory). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-97297-8. http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop.  (available as a PDF)
• Further publications