List of child prodigies

This is a list of people who, typically before 15 years old, showed abilities comparable to those of highly skilled adults in specific fields; hence the term child prodigy.

Contents 1 Mathematics and science 1.1 Mathematics 1.1.1 Mental calculators 1.2 Physics 1.3 Mechanical engineering 1.4 Medicine 1.5 Biology 1.6 Psychology 2 The Arts 2.1 Acting/directing 2.2 Music 2.3 Literature 2.4 Visual arts 3 Humanities 3.1 Academics 3.2 Humane Letters: Leadership, Teaching, Evangelism 3.3 Law/philosophy 3.4 Linguistics/translation 4 Sports 5 Games 6 Legendary 7 See also 8 References 9 Web sources 10 External links

Mathematics and science

Mathematics

• Maria Agnesi: has a curve named after her called the Witch of Agnesi.
• Theodore Kaczynski: The Unabomber
• Johann III Bernoulli: when thirteen years of age took the degree of doctor in philosophy.
• Alexis Clairaut: in his thirteenth year he read before the Académie Française an account of the properties of four curves which he had discovered.
• Leonhard Euler was given math lessons by Johann Bernoulli, who quickly discovered his new pupil's talent
• Paul Erdős discovered negative numbers for himself at the age of three.
• Louis Crane entered the University of Chicago in his early teens, and began taking graduate-level mathematics courses at 14 years old. He is currently a professor at Kansas State University and a quantum-gravity researcher.
• Carl Friedrich Gauss
• Sir William Rowan Hamilton, a mathematician, read Hebrew at seven years old, and studied Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Sanskrit and four other continental languages at 12 years old.^[1]
• Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician, who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.
• William James Sidis set a record in 1909 by becoming the youngest person to enroll at Harvard College, at 11 years old.
• Terence Tao
• John von Neumann
• Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at nine years old; his first proof, on a wall with a piece of coal, at 11 years old, and a theorem by 16 years old. He is famous for Pascal's theorem and many other contributions in mathematics, philosophy, and physics.
• Alia Sabur received an undergraduate degree at 14 years old, and became a college professor at 18 years old.
• Michael Viscardi published two papers on the Dirichlet problem by the time he was 17 years old.
• Per Enflo^[2]
• Sufiah Yusof a Malaysian, gained entry into St. Hilda's College, Oxford University, in 1997, to study mathematics at 12 years old.^[3]
• Norbert Wiener began graduate studies at age 14 at Harvard and was awarded Phd at 18 for dissertation on mathematical logic.
• Ruth Lawrence: graduated from Oxford at age 13. Got PhD at age 17, and became junior fellow at Harvard at age 19.

Mental calculators

Note: Several mathematicians were mental calculators when they were still children. This section is for child prodigies largely or primarily known for calculating skills. It should be noted that mental calculators are sometimes more like savants than they are like child prodigies. They have skills that rarely exist in adults and they may not be truly "mature" in mathematical understanding.

• Shakuntala Devi: Her abilities were first recognized at three years old.^[4]
• John von Neumann: A "mental calculator" by six years old, who could tell jokes in classical Greek.^[5][6]
• Alexis Lemaire holds the most famous mental-calculation world record.^[7]
• Truman Henry Safford could square 18 digit numbers at ten years old; later in life, he became an astronomer.^[8]

Physics

• Galileo Galilei was a child prodigy who showed the same sort of universal aptitude that Leonardo Da Vinci had manifested in similar measure.^[9]

• Mikaela Fudolig finished college at 16 years old with a degree in physics, summa cum laude and class valedictorian (Class of 2007), at the University of the Philippines. She entered the university at 11 years old. Currently, she teaches physics at the same university.^[10]
• Denis Krasnov (Russian: Денис Владимирович Краснов) is from the former USSR. He was accepted at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute at 13 years old.^[11]
• Tathagat Avatar Tulsi received an undergraduate degree at 10 years old.^[12]
• Kim Ung-Yong attended university physics courses at four years old, and received a Ph.D in physics before 16 years old.^[13]
• Song Yoo-geun entered the university at eight years old.^[14]
• Marcel Schmittfull won Germany's national prize for young scientists three times.^[15]

Mechanical engineering

• Karl Benz started at the scientifically oriented Lyzeum at nine years old, went on to study at the Poly-Technical University under the instruction of Ferdinand Redtenbacher, and, at 15 years old, passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe.

Medicine

• Balamurali Ambati graduated from high school at 11 years old, was a college junior by 12 years old, and a doctor at 17 years old.^[16]
• Avicenna memorized the Quran at 10 years old and studied medicine at 13 years old.^[17]
• Sho Yano started college at nine years old and graduated summa cum laude at 12 years old from Loyola University Chicago. By 12 years old, he attended the Pritzker School of Medicine^[18]

Biology

Psychology

• Jean Piaget published a paper on the albino sparrow at 11 years old, and later became a psychologist.^[19]

The Arts

Acting/directing

Note: This section is mostly limited to child actors or directors who were respected enough to be nominated or to win awards while in competition with adults, or who were declared prodigies. It also includes a few actors, from eras predating film, who were declared theatrical prodigies. This section must be limited this way because being even an award-winning child actor is not prodigious. (For child actors who won juvenile competition, see Academy Juvenile Award. These names do not necessarily equate with being competitive with adults and therefore do not necessarily count as prodigies.)

• William Henry West Betty was a sensation as a boy doing Voltaire and Shakespeare roles.^[20][21]
• Jackie Cooper was the youngest nominee for the Best Actor Oscar at age nine years old.^[22]
• Quinn Cummings was an Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee at 10 years old.^[23] She is now a businesswoman and blogger.
• Brandon De Wilde at seven years old, was the first child actor to win the Donaldson Award; his talent was praised by John Gielgud in the following year.^[24]. He was also a nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at 11 years old, in Shane.^[25]
• Jodelle Ferland received a daytime Emmy nomination at four years old and, at 12 years old, was nominated at the 27th Genie Awards for lead actress.^[26]
• Justin Henry was the youngest nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at eight years old, in Kramer vs. Kramer^[25]
• Patty McCormack was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 11 years old, in an era when child actors could still be nominated for the Juvenile Award.^[27]
• Frankie Michaels, at 11 years old, received praise^[28] and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in Mame.^[29]
• Tatum O'Neal won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 10 years old, for her 1973 role in Paper Moon, making her the youngest person ever to win a regularly awarded Oscar.^[23]
• Haley Joel Osment was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at 11 years old.^[25][30]
• Anna Paquin won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 11 years old.^[23][31]
• Ricky Schroder won a Golden Globe Award at nine years old, youngest winner ever.^[32]
• Shirley Temple, at five years old, showed talent as an actress and tap dancer. When she was seven years old, she received a special Academy Award. She was described as a prodigy by Time (magazine) in 1936.^[33]
• Ernest Truex did^{[clarification needed]} Shakespeare at six years old.^[34][35]

Music

See List of music prodigies.

Literature

• Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford: eponymous Oxford of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespearean authorship.
• Christopher Marlowe: as a child, attracted the attention of Matthew Parker.^[36] He is the eponymous Marlowe of the Marlovian theory of Shakespearean authorship.
• Alexander Pope: was a child prodigy as a poet, with gifts all but universally acknowledged.^[37] He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.
• Ervin Hatibi published his first poems at 14 in the major journals of the time, and, at 15, published his first book -well acclaimed by the critics.
• William Cullen Bryant was published at 10 years old; at 13 years old, he published a book of political-satire poems .^[38]
• Thomas Chatterton started as a poet at 11 years old. He began writing the poems that would make him famous at 12 years old.^[39][40]
• Lucretia Maria Davidson, by 11 years old, had written some poems of note; before her death at 16 years old, she received praise as a writer.^[41]
• Marjorie Fleming was a published poet before her death at eight years old.
• H. P. Lovecraft recited poetry at two years old and wrote long poems at five years old.^[42][43]
• Lope de Vega wrote his first play at 12 years old.^[44][45] He could read Latin at five years old and was translating Latin verse at 10 years old.
• Maulvi Ghulam Rasool published his first book when he was 14 years old.
• Dnyaneshwar, The Dnyaneshwari or Bhavartha deepika Teeka was written down by Sacchidananandbaba from discourses by Dnyaneshwar. By the time the commentary was complete Dnyaneshwar was only 15 years old.
• Harold Bloom - American literary critic and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale. Bloom claims that as a child he went to the Melrose branch of the New York Public Library and borrowed the works of Hart Crane, T. S. Eliot, Auden, William Blake, and Shakespeare. He claims that: "I memorized almost instinctively all of [William Blake's] long poems. I went from Blake to Milton and from Milton to Shakespeare...I read my way through the Melrose library.I am probably the largest monster of reading I have ever known. I can read at a shocking rate and I can remember nearly everything." ^[46] In the 1940s, at the Fordham library, Bloom would "ransack" the large and complex dictionaries and concordances.^[47] M. H. Abrams, Bloom's advisor at Cornell, describes him during his undergraduate years as "[A] formidable person. He was a prodigy, beyond anything I'd ever seen -- and there was never anyone since who came close."^[46]

Visual arts

• Gian Lorenzo Bernini, at seven years old, attracted the attention of Pope Paul V with his sketches. He also sculpted Martyrdom of St. Lawrence at 16 years old.
• Albrecht Durer
• Jacques Henri Lartigue French photographer whose childhood work was recognized as exceptional when he was sixty nine years old.
• Jan Lievens was a painter who was apprenticed at eight years old and an independent artist at 12 years old.^[48]
• John Everett Millais was a painter who entered the Royal Academy at 11 years old.^[49][50]
• Alexandra Nechita is a painter who had a solo exhibit at eight years old.^[51]
• Akiane Kramarik is a Christian painter who had solo exhibits by nine years old.
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Pablo Picasso painted Picador at eight years old. See List of Picasso artworks 1889-1900.
• Wang Yani had her paintings appear on postage stamps at six years old and in worldwide museum exhibits at 12 years old.
• Zhu Da became a poet by seven years old. He later became a painter.^[52][53]

Humanities

Academics

• Michael Kearney earned the first of several degrees at 10 years old. He became a college teacher by 17 years old."^[54][55]
• Gregory R. Smith entered college at 10 years old and was first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at 12 years old.^[56][57]
• Colin Maclaurin went to study divinity in University of Glasgow at the age of 11 and remained until he was 19 years, 7 months in the year 1717 when he was elected professor of mathematics holding the record as world's youngest professor until the record was broken by 18 year old Alia Sabur in March 2008 at the time, making her the new world's youngest professor.
• Alexander Faludy in 1998 became the youngest undergraduate at the University of Cambridge since 1773.^[58][59]

Humane Letters: Leadership, Teaching, Evangelism

• Aman Rehman made more than 1000 animated movies, beginning at three years old.^[60], and, at 8, he became the youngest college-lecturer in the world.^[61]
• Abdul Aleem Siddiqi memorized the whole Qur'an at four years old, and made his first speech (in a mosque) at eight years old.
• Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai, born in 1991, could recite the Qur'an at two years old and had memorized it completely at five years old. Coventry University awarded him a PhD in 1997.

Law/philosophy

• Jeremy Bentham studied Latin at three years old and entered The Queen's College, Oxford, at 12 years old.^[62][63]
• Hugo Grotius: entered the University of Leiden to study under Joseph Scaliger at age 11. At age 15 he was acclaimed by King Henry IV of France as the 'miracle of Holland'.^[64]
• Saul Kripke was invited to apply for a teaching post at Harvard while still in high school.^[65][66]
• John Stuart Mill knew several dead languages by eight years old and studied scholastic philosophy at 12 years old.^[67][68]
• Kathleen Holtz began university studies at 10 years old, entered UCLA law school at 15 years old, and passed the California bar exam at 18 years old.^[69]
• Stephen A. Baccus began studying law at 14 years old, graduated University of Miami law school at 16 years old, and passed Miami bar exam at 17 years old. He fought minimum-age requirements for bar-exam applicants in both New York and Miami.^[70][71]

Linguistics/translation

• Asad Ullah Qayyum, by seven years old, was able to deliver speeches in 12 languages.^[72]
• John Barratier knew six languages by 11 years old.^[73]
• Jean-François Champollion knew several dead languages at 10 years old and read an important paper at the Grenoble Academy at 16 years old.^[74][75]
• William James Sidis reportedly taught eight languages by eight years old.
• Thomas Young (scientist), more notable as a physicist, was a polyglot at a young age, who worked on translating Demotic Egyptian.^[75][76][77]
• Wendy Vo speaks fluently eleven languages by eight years old. She also composed 44 songs and is the youngest member of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers(ASCAP)^[78]

Sports

• Fu Mingxia is a diver ^[79][80] and was an Olympic gold medalist at 13 years old.
• Michelle Wie qualified for the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links at 10 years old and won the same event at 13 years old, making her the youngest person both to qualify for and win a USGA adult national championship.^[81]
• Wayne Gretzky was skating with 10-year-olds at six years old. By 10 years old, he scored 378 goals and 139 assists, in just 85 games, with the Nadrofsky Steelers.^[82]
• Ricky Rubio became a professional basketball player at 13 years old and became the youngest player to win an Olympic Medal when he won silver at the 2008 Olympics) at 17 years old.
• Tiger Woods started playing golf at the age of 2.
• Madison Keys at age 14, beat reigning Wimbledon champion Serena Williams in women's singles by a score of 5-1.
• Jahangir Khan at the age of 17, in 1981 the pakistani squash prodigy became the youngest World Open champion by out playing Geoff Hunt a prominent squash player of late 70's. Moreover during his career Jahangir Khan won the prestigious World open title an astonishing 6 times and secured the British Open title a record 10 times. Further more Jahangir Khan holds the record of the longest winning streak in the history of competitive sports (in number of wins). He secured this astounding record by winning a 555 consecutive matches of squash.
• Amobi Okoye was a scholarship football player for the University of Louisville at 15 years old, and was the youngest person ever drafted into the NFL at 19 years old.
• Sachin Tendulkar, a cricketer was only 16 when he made his International cricket debut in Test and one-day cricket. He is now the highest run scorer and century maker in both forms and regarded as one of the best to ever play the game.
• Roger Federer is a Tennis player who won his first Grandslam in 2003 at the age of 21. Within just 6 years, he broke the world record of 14 Grandslams set by Pete Sampras by winning his 15th at the Wimbledon defeating Andy Roddick in 2009. He is regarded as the greatest player to have ever played the game.

Games

• Bobby Fischer won the United States Chess Championship at 14 years old and achieved the title of Grandmaster, during the World-Championship-qualifications cycle, at 15 years old. Held title of World Chess Champion from 1972-1975.
• Samuel Reshevsky was playing chess in international events at the age of 10; he showed extraordinary promise at the game shortly after learning the moves when he was 3.
• Fabiano Caruana, a chess prodigy discovered at five years old, became the youngest-ever American and Italian Grandmaster (Dual citizenship), in 2007, at 14 years old.^[83]
• José Raúl Capablanca was one of the best chess players of all time.^[84]
• Cho Hunhyun was a professional go player at nine years old.^[85]
• Willie Mosconi, nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards," played against professionals at six years old.^[86]
• Ronnie O'Sullivan, a snooker player, scored his first century break a 10 years old,^[87], his first maximum at 15 years old, and was the youngest-ever winner of a ranking event at 17 years old.
• Judith, Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár are chessplayers of Hungarian-Jewish origin. Born between 1969 and 1976, the sisters reached a high level of chess skill each before 13 years old, as a result of an experiment by their psychologist father László Polgár. Judit Polar has been the highest rated woman for over 10 years.
• Nicholas Nip was the youngest-ever USCF Chess Master with a rating of 2207 at nine years, 11 months old.
• Joshua Waitzkin was a chess prodigy at six years old, and a current Tai Chi master. He was made popular by the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer.
• Victor De Leon III (aka Lil Poison) became the youngest professional video gamer in the world at six years old. He is enlisted in the 2008 and 2009 Guinness Book of World Records. At nine years old, Lil Poison was seated in 1st place, in a 1 vs 1 video game challenge, out of 3500+ competitors.

Legendary

This is for historic children, who have become representatives of the "prodigy" phenomenon, inspiring literature, but whose actual accomplishments have not been firmly established due to the poor sourcing or records of their eras.

• Gaon of Vilna was an historically significant rabbi who was called a prodigy in youth and who is said to have had a variety of skills by 11 years old.^[88]
• Christian Friedrich Heinecken (1721-1725) was a prodigy, who could speak from an early day on and by the time of his death was well-versed in mathematics, history and geography, and could speak Latin and French in addition to his native tongue.
• Okita Sōji (1842 or 1844-1868) was kenjutsu-(swordsmanship) prodigy, who defeated a kenjutsu master by 12 years old, became a master of kenjutsu and a school head (Jukutou) by 18 years old. He died from tuberculosis in his mid-twenties.

See also

• Chess prodigy
• List of child prodigies in fiction

References

• Gifted Children: Myths and Realities by Ellen Winner: ISBN 0-465-01759-2
• Children Above 180 IQ: Standford-Binet Origin and Development by Leta Stetter Hollingworth: ISBN 0-405-06467-5
• Child Prodigies and Exceptional Early Achievers by John Radford: ISBN 0-02-925635-6

Web sources

External links

• The Origins and Ends of Giftedness by Ellen Winner
• Time Asia
• History of the education of gifted children by Ellen Summers