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 Euro 1000 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 vârsta 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
records
and 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 chess 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.
Elaina Smith: youngest agony aunt aged 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."
Email from Woo Young Kim
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