10 most amazing child prodigies of our time
Most people strive to achieve excellence in their professional field - some reach the top of their careers in adulthood, but others are so talented that they sometimes surpass adults as children. Here is a list of ten modern geeks who have achieved success in various professions.
1. Michaela Fudolig
Mikaela Irene Fudolig entered the University of the Philippines at age 11, and at 16 she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in physical science—she became a valedictorian valedictorian. Mikaela is currently a professor at the same university and focuses on econophysics - the mathematical modeling of behavior in systems and biological systems.
2. Akrit Yaswal
Akrit Pran Yaswal from India became famous when he performed his first surgical operation - he was then only seven years old. Although he was not yet a doctor at that time, he already had a reputation as a medical genius in a narrow circle of acquaintances. His eight-year-old friend received severe burns on his hand, and Akran separated his fingers.
Akran entered medical school at the age of 12, and by the age of 17 had earned a master's degree in applied chemistry. Today he is looking for a cure for cancer.
3. Taylor Wilson
Taylor Ramon Wilson became the youngest person in the world to create a working fusor, a device designed for nuclear fusion reactions. At the age of 10, he designed a nuclear bomb, and made a fusor when he was 14. In May 2011, Taylor received an award at the Intel International Science and Technology Fair for a transition radiation detector.
In February 2013, he spoke at the TED-2013 conference, where he spoke about his ideas for autonomous underground nuclear fission reactors. Taylor has developed a compact nuclear reactor that he says can generate 50 megawatts of electricity and only needs to be refueled every 30 years.
4. Cameron Thompson
Cameron Thompson is a math genius from North Wales. When he was four years old, he corrected his teacher, who said that zero was the smallest number, by stating that he had forgotten about negative numbers. At the age of 11, he received a degree in mathematics from the Open University in the UK. At the same age, the boy successfully passed two final exams at a mathematical school and was shown by the BBC as one of the brilliant teenagers. Unfortunately, Cameron has learning difficulties due to Asperger's disease, but nevertheless he is one of the young mathematical geniuses of the world.
5. Jacob Barnett
Jacob Barnett is an American mathematician. When he was two years old, he was diagnosed with severe autism: doctors said that he would not be able to speak, read and perform small household activities. At the age of three, it turned out that the doctors made a big mistake - Jacob could tell the alphabet in the forward and reverse order.
At the same age, during a visit to the planetarium, Jacob answered the presenter's question about why the moons of Mars are such a strange shape. He entered Indiana University at Indianapolis at the age of 10.
While working on his doctoral dissertation, Barnett claimed that one day he would be able to disprove Einstein's theory of relativity. He is currently working on a dissertation in quantum physics.
6. Mark Tian Boedihardjo
Born in Hong Kong, Mark Tian Boedihardjo is the youngest person to enter the University of Hong Kong at the age of nine. He studied in a special program, where special attention was paid to mathematics and statistics, at the same time he passed eight final exams at school.
Mark now has two degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Philosophy in Mathematics, which he received in 2011—a year ahead of schedule. He is currently pursuing a PhD in mathematics from the United States.
7. Priyanshi Somani
Priyanshi Somani from India has an amazing ability to perform complex mathematical calculations in his mind. At the age of six, she mastered mental counting, and at 11 she won first place in the Mental Calculation World Cup competition: Priyanshi beat 36 other competitors from 16 countries by calculating the square root of ten six-digit numbers in a record 6 minutes and 51 seconds. To top it off, she was the only contestant in the history of the contest to not make a single mistake when adding, multiplying, and extracting square roots.
Priyanshi set the new world record for mental square roots in January 2012 when she calculated the square root of ten six-digit numbers in 2 minutes and 43 seconds.
8. Akim Kamara
Akim Kamara is a violinist from Berlin. He began playing the violin at the age of two and has a remarkable memory of music, which he heard in diapers. His teacher noticed his natural "ear for music" and began teaching the boy music lessons twice a week. Akim learned to play the violin exceptionally quickly, in just six months of training, and made his debut in December 2003 at the age of three at a Christmas concert.
9. Ethan Bortnik
Ethan Bortnik is a musician, songwriter and actor. When he was three years old, he began to play the harpsichord, and at the age of five he began to write music. His debut performance took place on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2007, after which the boy performed repeatedly in the future.
Ethan entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest solo artist in the world. He is also the youngest headliner to ever perform in Las Vegas - the concert took place when Ethan was ten years old.
10. Tanish Matthew Abraham
Tanish Matthew Abraham is one of the youngest members of Mensa, joining at the age of four. His genius manifested itself at four months old when he began to look through children's books and correctly answer questions about their content.
Upon joining Mensa, he achieved a score of 99.9% on Mensa's standardized IQ test. At the age of five, Tanish completed five courses in mathematics from Stanford University's Gifted Education Program in just six months.
At the age of six, he entered high school and then college - in all subjects, his GPA never dropped below 4.0. He also frequently posts essays on the NASA Lunar Institute website.