1) Kim Ung-Yong: Attended University at age 4,
Ph.D at age 15; World's highest IQ
This Korean super-genius was born in 1962 and might just be
the smartest guy alive today (he's recognized by the Guinness Book
of World Records as having the highest IQ of anyone on the planet).
By the age of four he was already able to read in Japanese, Korean,
German, and English.
At his fifth birthday, he solved complicated differential and integral
calculus problems. Later, on Japanese television, he demonstrated his
proficiency in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, German, English,
Japanese,and Korean. Kim was listed in the Guinness Book of
World Records under Highest IQ; the book estimated the boy's score
at over 210..
Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of
3 until he was 6. At the age of 7 he was invited to America by NASA.
He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics
at Colorado State University before he was 15. In 1974, during his
university studies, he began his research work at NASA and continued
this work until his return to Korea in 1978 where he decided to switch
from physics to civil engineering and eventually received a doctorate
in that field. Kim was offered the chance to study at the most
prestigious universities in Korea, but instead chose to attend a
provincial university.As of 2007 he also serves as adjunct faculty
at Chungbuk National University.
2. Gregory Smith: Nominated for
a Nobel Peace Prize at age 12:
Born in 1990, Gregory Smith could read at age two and had enrolled in
university at 10. But genius is only one half of the Greg Smith story.
When not voraciously learning, this young man travels the globe as
a peace and children's rights activist.
He is the founder of International Youth Advocates, an organization that
promotes principles of peace and understanding among young people
throughout the world. He has met with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev
and spoke in front of the UN. For these and other humanitarian
and advocacy efforts, Smith has been nominated four times for
a Nobel Peace Prize. His latest achievement? He just got his driver license.
3. Akrit Jaswal: The Seven Year-Old Surgeon:
Akrit Jaswal is a young Indian who has been called the world's smartest boy
and it's easy to see why. His IQ is 146 and is considered the smartest
person his age in India a country of more than a billion people.
Akrit came to public attention when in 2000 he performed his first
medical procedure at his family home. He was seven. His patient a
local girl who could not afford a doctor was eight. Her hand had
been burnt in a fire, causing her fingers to close into a tight fist
that wouldn't open. Akrit had no formal medical training and
no experience of surgery, yet he managed to free her fingers and
she was able to use her hand again.
He focused his phenomenal intelligence on medicine and at
the age of twelve he claimed to be on the verge of discovering a
cure for cancer. He is now studying for a science degree at
Chandigarh College and is the youngest student ever accepted
by an Indian University.
4. Cleopatra Stratan: A 3 year old singer
who earns GBP 1,000 per song:
Clepotra was born October 6, 2002 in Chisinau, Moldova and is
the daughter of Moldovan-Romanian singer, Pavel Stratan.
She is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer,
with her 2006 album La vrsta de trei ani (At the age of 3).
She holds the record for being the youngest artist that performed live
for two hours in front of a large audience, the highest paid young artist,
the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist
to score a #1 hit in a country (Ghita in Romanian Singles Chart).
5. Aelita Andre: The 2-year-old artist who showed
her paintings in a famous gallery:
The abstract paintings of emerging artist Aelita Andre have people
in Australia's art world talking. Aelita is two (the works were painted
when she was even younger).
Aelita got an opportunity to show her paintings when Mark Jamieson,
the director of Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne's Fitzroy,
was asked by a photographer whose work he represented to consider
the work of another artist. Jamieson liked what he saw
and agreed to include it in a group show.
Jamieson then started to promote the show, printing glossy invitations
and placing ads in the magazines Art Almanac and Art Collector,
featuring the abstract work. Only then did he discover a crucial fact
about the new artist: Aelita Andre is Kalashnikova's daughter, and
was just 22 months old. Jamieson was shocked and embarrassed but
decided to proceed with the exhibition anyways.
6. Saul Aaron Kripke: Invited to apply for a teaching post
at Harvard while still in high school:
A rabbi's son, Saul Aaron Kripke was born in New York and grew up in
Omaha in 1940. By all accounts he was a true prodigy. In the fourth grade
he discovered algebra, and by the end of grammar school he had
mastered geometry and calculus and taken up philosophy. While still
a teenager he wrote a series of papers that eventually transformed the
study of modal logic. One of them earned a letter from the math department
at Harvard,which hoped he would apply for a job until he wrote back
and declined, explaining, My mother said that I should finish high school
and go to college first. After finishing high school, the college
he eventually chose was Harvard.
Kripke was awarded the Schock Prize, philosophy's equivalent of
the Nobel. Nowadays, he is thought to be the world's greatest
living philosopher.
7. Michael Kevin Kearney: Earned his first degree
at age 10 and became a reality show Millionaire:
24 year-old Michael Kearney became known as the world's youngest
college graduate at the age of 10. In 2008, Kearney earned $1,000,000
on the television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
Kearny was born in 1984 and is was known for setting several
world recordsand teaching college at the age of 17.
He spoke his first words at four months. At the age of six months,
he said to his pediatrician I have a left ear infection and learned
to read at the age of ten months. When Michael was four,
he was given diagnostic tests for the Johns Hopkins precocious
math program and achieved a perfect score. He finished high school
at age 6, enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College graduating at 10
with an Associate of Science in Geology. He is listed in
the Guinness Book as the world's youngest university graduate
at the age of 10,receiving a bachelor's degree in anthropology.
For a while, he also held the record for the world's
youngest postgraduate.
But in 2006, he became worldwide famous after reaching the finals
on the Mark Burnett/AOL quiz/puzzle game Gold Rush, and became
the first $1 million winner in the online reality game.
8. Fabiano Luigi Caruana: a ches prodigy who became
the youngest Grandmaster at age 14:
Fabulous Fabiano is a 16-year-old chess Grandmaster and
chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States.
On 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years,
11 months, 20 days the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both
Italy and the United States. In the April 2009 FIDE list, he has an
Elo rating of 2649, making him the world's highest ranked player
under the age of 18.
9. Willie Mosconi: Played professional Billiards at age 6
William Joseph Mosconi, nicknamed Mr. Pocket Billiards
was a American professional pocket billiards (pool) player
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Willie's father owned a pool hall
where he wasn't allowed to play, but Willie improvised by practicing
with small potatoes from his mother's kitchen and an old broomstick.
His father soon realized that his son was a child prodigy began
advertising challenge matches, and though Willie had to stand
on a box in order to reach the table,
he beat experienced players many years his senior.
In 1919, an exhibition match was arranged between six-year old
Willie and the reigning World Champion, Ralph Greenleaf. The hall
was packed,and though Greenleaf won that match, Willie played
very well launching his career in professional billiards. In 1924, at
the tender age of eleven,Willie was the juvenile straight pool
champion and was regularly holding trick shot exhibitions.
Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the BCA World
Championship of pool an unmatched fifteen times. Mosconi
pioneered and employed numerous trick shots, set many records,
and helped to popularize the game of billiards. He still holds
the officially recognized straight pool high run record of
526 consecutive balls.
10. Eliana Smith: Youngest Agony Aunt at age 7:
Her local radio station gave her the job after she rang and offered
advice to a woman caller who had been dumped. Elaina's tip go bowling
with pals and drink a mug of milk was so good she got a weekly slot
and now advises thousands of adult listeners. The littler adviser tackles
problems ranging from how to dump boyfriends and how to cope with
relationship breakdown to dealing with smelly brothers.
When one listener wrote to Elaina asking how to get a man,
she replied: Shake your booty on the dance floor and listen to
High School Musical. Another caller asked how to get her man back,
Elaina told her: He's not worth the heartache. Life's too short
to be upset with a boy.
