Branko Grünbaum (Hebrew: ברנקו גרונבאום; 2 October 1929 – 14 September 2018)[1] was a Croatian-born mathematician of Jewish descent[2] and a professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Grünbaum became a student at the University of Zagreb, but grew disenchanted with the communist ideology of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, applied for emigration to Israel, and traveled with his family and Zdenka to Haifa in 1949.

[4] In Israel, Grünbaum found a job in Tel Aviv, but in 1950 returned to the study of mathematics,[4] at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His monograph Tilings and patterns, coauthored with G. C. Shephard, helped to rejuvenate interest in this classic field, and has proved popular with nonmathematical audiences, as well as with mathematicians.

In 1976 Grünbaum won a Lester R. Ford Award for his expository article Venn diagrams and independent families of sets.

[5] In 2004, Gil Kalai and Victor Klee edited a special issue of Discrete and Computational Geometry in his honor, the "Grünbaum Festschrift".