Aristid Lindenmayer

In 1968 he developed a type of formal language today called L-systems or Lindenmayer systems.

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.

Lindenmayer studied chemistry and biology at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest from 1943 to 1948.

[1] In 1968 he became professor in Philosophy of Life Sciences and Biology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.