Terence Tao: Meet the person with the highest IQ in the world

His name may not ring a bell, but this 46-year-old Australian has the highest IQ in the world, beating Albert Einstein by a wide margin. Who is Terence Tao?

Terence Tao
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Terence Tao

The first measure of intelligence was developed by two French psychologists and psychiatrists: Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon. Initially, it was the result of a request from the State, which wanted to detect children with academic difficulties at an early stage.

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The term Intelligence Quotient dates back to 1912. It was invented by William Stern, a German psychologist, who correlated the age of the individual being evaluated with the results obtained in the Binet and Simon test.

The tests then multiplied to become the test we know today with the following scale

  • Less than 79 IQ: Borderline impaired or delayed
  • Between 80 and 89: Low average
  • Between 90 and 109: Average
  • Between 110 and 119: High average
  • Between 120 and 129: Superior
  • over 130 IQ: Gifted

Terence Tao, 230 IQ

Born in 1975, Terence Tao is an Australian mathematician. His father says that at the age of two he discovered that his son could read, having learned to read by watching Sesame Street.

By the age of nine, he was taking Mathematics at university level. He graduated from Flinders University in Australia at 17 and went on to study at the prestigious Princeton University in the United States.

Promoted to professor at 21, he is now a mathematical engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a space research institute of NASA.

Nicknamed the Mozart of maths, he has an IQ of 230, whereas the average is 100, and Albert Einstein had an IQ of 160.

What are the 10 highest IQs in the world

10. Judit Polgár, Hungarian chess champion, with an IQ of 170

9. Sir Andrew Wiles, British mathematician, with an IQ of 170

8. Marilyn vos Savant, American author and playwright, with an IQ of 186

7. Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster, with an IQ of 190

6. Mislav Predavec, Croatian mathematics teacher, with an IQ of 192

5. Richard Gilligan Rosner, American screenwriter and reality TV star, with an IQ of 192

4. Christopher Langan, American career-changing firefighter, farmer, doorman, etc., with an IQ of 195

3. Kim Ung-Yong, assistant university professor, South Korean, with an IQ of 220

2. Christopher Hirata, American astrophysicist, with an IQ of 225

1. Australian Terence Tao with an IQ of 230

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