Professor Terence Tao FAA, FRS, often referred to as the “Mozart of Math,” is one of the most celebrated mathematicians of our time.
A child prodigy, Tao began university-level mathematics courses at age nine and scored 760 on the SAT math section at eight—one of the highest scores for his age. He remains the youngest participant to win bronze, silver, and gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad, achieving the gold at just 13.
In 1992, at the age of 17, Tao became the youngest recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in the history of the Australian program. He headed to Princeton University where he completed groundbreaking research in harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. His extraordinary career includes a Fields Medal (2006), the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2015), and numerous other honors. Now a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, he has significantly advanced mathematical research across diverse fields, including number theory and random matrices. Tao’s contributions have profoundly influenced mathematics, and his dedication to teaching and public engagement inspires future generations.