List of child prodigies explained

See main article: Child prodigy.

In psychology research literature, the term child prodigy is defined as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain to the level of an adult expert professional.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Mathematics and science

• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at the age of nine; he wrote his first proof, on a wall with a piece of coal, at the age of 11 years, and a theorem by the age of 16 years. He is famous for Pascal's theorem and many other contributions in mathematics, philosophy, and physics.^[4]
• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was a British philosopher and economist. At the age of eight, Mill began studying Latin, the works of Euclid, and algebra. At about the age of twelve, Mill began a thorough study of the scholastic logic. In the following year he was introduced to political economy and studied Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
• Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) was an American philosopher and mathematician. He graduated from Ayer High School in Massachusetts at 11 years of age. He was awarded a BA in mathematics in 1909 from Tufts University at the age of 14. He earned his PhD in mathematics at Harvard University four years later.^[5] He subsequently joined the department of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he made valuable contributions to the studies of stochastic processes, statistics, cybernetics, and signal processing.^[6]
• William James Sidis (1898–1944) was a mathematics and language prodigy. Sidis was able to read The New York Times as an 18-month-old. He taught himself eight languages by age eight and invented his own. He was admitted into Harvard University at age 11, and in the same year attracted national attention for lecturing on 4-dimensional bodies to the Harvard Mathematical Club.^[7]
• John von Neumann (1903–1957) was a "mental calculator" by the age of six years, and could tell jokes in classical Greek.^{[8] [9]} At eight, he mastered calculus and at twelve could comprehend a text written for professional mathematicians. He made his first original contribution to mathematics at age 20 with a rigorous definition of ordinal numbers. He earned his diploma in chemical engineering and his doctoral degree in mathematics three years later, writing his dissertation on axiomatic set theory. Von Neumann went on to make numerous contributions to mathematics, economics, physics, and computer science.^[10] (Note: Several mathematicians were mental calculators when they were still children. Mental calculation is not to be confused with mathematics.)
• Lev Landau (1908–1968) was a Soviet physicist who mastered calculus by age 13. He graduated from the Baku Gymnasium aged only 13 in the same year. He wrote his first scientific paper at age 18 on molecular physics. Landau is today best known for his work on quantum mechanics, diamagnetism, thermodynamics, plasma physics, superfluidity, superconductivity. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962 for his contributions to condensed-matter physics. He also co-authored a series of textbooks with one of his students, Evgeny Lifshitz.^[11]
• Charles Fefferman (1949–) started to attend university at 14 years of age and obtained is PhD in mathematics at 20. He was appointed a professor at the University of Chicago two years later and, at age 25, became a full professor at Princeton University. He is well-known for his work in modern mathematical analysis.^[12] He earned the Fields Medal in 1978.^[13]
• Noam David Elkies (1966–) graduated from the Stuyvesant High School in New York City at age 15. He then attended Columbia University, where he won the gold medal at the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition at 16 and graduated at the top of his class in three years. At age 26, he became the youngest person ever to be granted tenure at Harvard University.^[14] He is an expert on elliptic curves.^[15] In addition, he is also a musician, playing at Harvard, and was a competitive chess player with the United States Chess Federation.^[16] He has a talent for composing and solving chess puzzles.
• Terence Tao (1975–) took high-school-level mathematics at age seven and matriculated at university two years later.^[17] At ten, he won a medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad, becoming one of the youngest individuals in history to have done so. He is one of only three children in the history of the Johns Hopkins Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just eight years old; Tao scored a 760.^[18] Julian Stanley, Director of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, stated that Tao had the greatest mathematical reasoning ability he had found in years of intensive searching. Tao has since earned a MacArthur grant and a Fields Medal.^[19] He is an expert in multiple branches of mathematics, including harmonic analysis (with applications in data compression), partial differential equations, number theory, and combinatorics.^[20] One of his most famous results is the Green-Tao theorem (proven in collaboration with Ben Green), which pertains to the twin prime conjecture.^[21]
• Erik Demaine (1981–) was identified as a prodigy at the age of 7^[22] and earned his PhD in computer science at 20.^[23] He is now a computer scientist at MIT. He is also an expert in the mathematics of origami.

Medicine

• Sho Yano (1990–) is an American physician. He entered Loyola University at age 9 and graduated summa cum laude just three years later. At 13, he went on to the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine.^[24]

Humanities

Scholarship

• Jean-Philippe Baratier (1721–1740) by the age of nine knew French, German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and at the age of eleven published a scholarly translation of a medieval work. He was admitted as a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and received a master of arts degree at the age of 14.^[25]
• Christian Heinrich Heineken (1721–1725), known as the "infant scholar of Lübeck", was able to read the Pentateuch at the age of one, and read the Old and New Testaments in Latin between the ages of two and three. He recited the history of Denmark in front of the Danish king in Copenhagen at the age of three.^[26]
• Karl Witte (1800–1883) at the age of nine knew—in addition to his native German—French, Italian, Latin, English, and Greek, and read classic works in those languages. In the same year, he was matriculated at the University of Leipzig. He earned a doctorate at age 13 and became a Doctor of Laws at the age of 16, when he joined the teaching staff of the University of Berlin. He later became a notable scholar of Dante.^[27]

The arts

Music

See main article: List of child music prodigies.

Literature

• William Cullen Bryant published his first poem at the age of 10; at the age of 13 years, he published a book of political satire poems.^[28]
• Minou Drouet caught the notice of French critics at the age of eight, leading to speculation that her mother was the true author of her poetry. She later proved herself to be the author.^[29]

Visual arts

• Edmund Thomas Clint (1976–1983) was an Indian child prodigy.^[30] He is known for having drawn over 25,000 paintings, though he lived to be just six years and 11 months old.^[31]
• Wang Yani (b. 1975) began painting at two, and her work was exhibited at the age of 4. She became the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition in the Smithsonian at the age of 14. By the time she was 16, she painted upwards of 10,000 painting in a Chinese watercolor style.^{[32] [33]}

Games

Go

• Sumire Nakamura was competing in national Go tournaments in Japan by the time she was seven, and became the youngest professional go player at age 10 in 2019.^{[34] [35]}

Other

Some children become famous and are called a prodigy although it is questionable whether they have produced meaningful output to the level of an adult expert professional.^[36]

• Arden Hayes (born 2008) who as a five-year old appeared in newspapers and television shows because of his ability to memorize information about certain topics.^[37]

See also

• List of fictional child prodigies
• Lists of child actors
• List of child sportspeople

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia: Feldman . David H. . Encyclopedia of Creativity . Morelock . M. J. . Encyclopedia of Creativity (Second Edition) . Runco . Mark A. . Pritzker . Steven R. . 2011 . Academic Press . 978-0-12-375038-9 . 10.1016/B978-0-12-375038-9.00182-5 . 261–265 . For the purposes of this and future research, a prodigy was defined as a child younger than 10 years of age who has reached the level of a highly trained professional in a demanding area of endeavor. . Prodigies.
2. News: Rose . Lacey . Whiz Kids . 3 April 2015 . Forbes . 2 March 2007 . At the moment, the most widely accepted definition is a child, typically under the age of 10, who has mastered a challenging skill at the level of an adult professional. . 22 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201022180907/https://www.forbes.com/2007/02/25/child-prodigies-biographies-lead_achieve07_cx_lr_0301prodigy.html . live .
3. Feldman . David Henry . Fall 1993 . Child prodigies: A distinctive form of giftedness . Gifted Child Quarterly . 0016-9862 . 27 . 4 . 188–193 . 10.1177/001698629303700408 . 144180264 . 1 June 2014 . 13 January 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160113062657/http://gcq.sagepub.com/content/37/4/188.full.pdf . live .
4. Book: The Age of Louis XIV: A History of European Civilization in the Period of Pascal, Molière, Cromwell, Milton, Peter the Great, Newton, and Spinoza: 1648–1715 . registration . William Durant . Ariel Durant . Simon and Schuster . 1963 . 56.
5. News: Tweney . Dylan . November 26, 2008 . Nov. 26, 1894: Cybernetics Pioneer Norbert Wiener Born . https://archive.ph/boHTX . November 29, 2024 . November 29, 2024 . Wired.
6. News: Hardesty . Larry . June 21, 2011 . The Original Absent-Minded Professor . https://web.archive.org/web/20220520041921/https://www.technologyreview.com/2011/06/21/193920/the-original-absent-minded-professor/ . May 20, 2022 . November 29, 2024 . MIT Technology Review.
7. Book: Wallace . Amy . The Prodigy . 1986 . E.P. Dutton . New York . en.
8. Web site: Von_Neumann summary. st-and.ac.uk. 18 December 2015. 31 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151231182812/http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Von_Neumann.html. live.
9. Web site: The History of Computing. gmu.edu. 18 December 2015. 11 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151211191439/http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/computer-hist-web.htm. live.
10. Halmos . Paul . Paul Halmos . 1973 . The Legend of John von Neumann . . 80 . 4 . 382–94 . 10.1080/00029890.1973.11993293.
11. Kapitza . Piotr Leonidovich . Peter Kapitza . Lifshitz . Evgenii Mikhailovich . Evgeny Lifshitz . November 1969 . Obituary: Lev Davydovitch Landau, 1908-1968 . Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society . 15 . 10.1098/rsbm.1969.0007.
12. News: Haitch . Richard . July 4, 1976 . Charlie Fefferman, Princeton mathematician, and an equation in his hand . https://archive.ph/B1b7D . November 29, 2024 . November 29, 2024 . The New York Times.
13. Web site: Fields Medals 1978 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201010144934/https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Prizes/Fields/1978/index.html . 10 October 2020 . 7 April 2019 . mathunion.org . International Mathematical Union.
14. News: McClain . Dylan Loeb . August 28, 2010 . Skilled at the Chessboard, Keyboard and Blackboard . https://archive.ph/1keq5 . April 27, 2013 . November 30, 2024 . The New York Times.
15. Web site: Howlett . Joseph . 11 November 2024 . New Elliptic Curve Breaks 18-Year-Old Record . 11 November 2024 . Quanta Magazine.
16. News: Silber . Maia R. . Torres . Marco A. . November 21, 2013 . Chess with Blitzstein & Elkies: The Pawn is Mightier than the Sword . November 30, 2024 . The Harvard Crimson.
17. .
18. Web site: 2016-06-22 . Radical Acceleration in Australia: Terence Tao . 2024-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160622034836/http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10116 . 22 June 2016 .
19. News: Cook . Gareth . July 24, 2015 . The Singular Mind of Terrance Tao . https://archive.ph/EWxtN . July 10, 2024 . November 29, 2024 . The New York Times.
20. News: Wolpert . Stuart . August 22, 2006 . Terence Tao, ‘Mozart of Math,’ is first UCLA math prof to win Fields Medal . November 30, 2024 . UCLA Newsroom.
21. News: Chang . Kenneth . March 13, 2007 . Journeys to the Distant Fields of Prime . https://archive.ph/ZbncI . November 30, 2024 . November 30, 2024 . The New York Times.
22. Web site: 2005-09-08 . TIME.com: Why Origami Is Critical to New Drugs – Sep. 12, 2005 – Page 1 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050908201046/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101327,00.html . 8 September 2005 . 2024-04-06.
23. News: Wertheim . Margaret . February 15, 2005 . Origami as the Shape of Things to Come . https://web.archive.org/web/20221019054902/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/science/origami-as-the-shape-of-things-to-come.html . October 19, 2022 . November 29, 2024 . The New York Times.
24. Web site: Boy prodigy now a doctor and a young man – Chicago Tribune . 2024-04-06 . galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com.
25. Book: Formey . Jean-Henri-Samuel . Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey . The Life of John Philip Baratier,: The Prodigy of this Age for Genius and Learning; Created, at Fourteen Years Old, Master of Arts, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Berlin . 1743 . J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in Ludgate-street. . London . en.
26. Heinecken, Christian Heinrich. 13. 215–216.
27. Book: Witte, K.H.G. . The Education Of Karl Witte . Thomas Y. Cromwell Co. . 1914 . New York . en . Bruce . H. Addington . Addington Bruce . Weiner . Leo . His study of foreign languages began with French, which his father taught him in a novel way, fully described in the chapter on his education in the languages. So successful was this special method that within a year Karl was reading French with ease. Meanwhile he had begun the study of Italian, and from Italian passed to Latin. English came next, then the study of Greek, a language concerning which the boy’s curiosity was whetted by tales from Homer and Xenophon told to him by his father... In all five languages the boy made such progress that by the time he was nine, according to his father’s statement, he had read Homer, Plutarch, Virgil, Cicero, Ossian, Fénelon, Florian, and Metastasio, besides Schiller and other German writers.. Leo Weiner. Editor's Introduction.
28. Web site: On William Cullen Bryant. vcu.edu. 18 December 2015. 18 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151218081239/http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bryant/brybio.html. live.
29. Web site: 1957-01-28 . Kitten on the Keys . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090410035239/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809012,00.html . 2009-04-10 . Time Magazine.
30. Web site: The unfading colours of child prodigy. https://web.archive.org/web/20071023195048/http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/18/stories/2006081825480400.htm. dead. 23 October 2007. The Hindu. 2006-08-18. 18 December 2015.
31. Web site: 2024-04-05 . "The Hindu : She spells hope and happiness" . https://web.archive.org/web/20121111040608/http://hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/07/31/stories/2003073101150200.htm . 2012-11-11 . 2003-07-31.
32. News: Brenson . Michael . A Painting Prodigy, but Still a Child . New York Times . July 16, 1989 . en.
33. News: D’arcy . David . Prodigy Dazzles With Skill in Traditional Painting . Los Angeles Times . 2 November 1991.
34. News: 2019-01-06. Japanese girl to be youngest Go professional. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-09-25. 4 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190704040749/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46773504. live.
35. News: Youngest professional Go player aged 10 marks debut with loss. April 23, 2019. Mainichi Daily News.
36. Web site: 2019-11-08 . Is Your Child REALLY a Genius? . 2023-08-12 . Pittsburgh Parent . en-US.
37. Web site: Lelyveld . Nita . 2013-05-04 . This presidential database loves running and Legos . 2023-08-12 . .