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20 Best Brains Under 40

Terence Tao


Mathematician, University of California Los Angeles

Many of the great mathematicians of our era probably scored a perfect 800 on the math section of their SATs. Terence Tao squeaked by with a 760—when he was 8 years old.

A quarter century later, Tao, now 33, is one of the most prolific and esteemed mathematicians in the nation. In 1999 he became UCLA’s youngest professor at age 24 and later won the 2006 Fields Medal, considered the Nobel Prize of math. In a discipline where one can spend a lifetime working on a single problem, Tao has made major contributions in a number of categories ranging from nonlinear equations to number theory—which explains why colleagues continually seek his guidance.