Math Prodigy Terence Tao, UCLA - ott板

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Math Prodigy Terence Tao, UCLA - YouTube
Terence Tao was a seven year-old high school student when he began taking calculus classes. By age 20 he had received a Ph.D. from Princeton and joined the U...

於 2008-09-11 上傳

Terence Tao was a seven year-old high school student when he began taking calculus classes. By age 20 he had received a Ph.D. from Princeton and joined the UCLA faculty. In 2006 he won the Fields Medal in Mathematics and a MacArthur "genius" grant. Watch Tao talk about how he approaches problem-solving.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sum-boy-genius/2006/08/22/1156012541805.html

A boy genius who played his numbers just right

Deborah Smith Science Editor
August 23, 2006

AT THE age of two, Terence Tao could already add up and subtract using the magnetic numbers his parents stuck on the fridge.

At eight, he scored better than 99 per cent of 17-year-old prospective university students on an international aptitude test for mathematics.

The Adelaide-born prodigy was appointed a professor at 24, and now, at 31, has become the first Australian to win a Fields Medal, the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel prize.

The award was presented in Madrid yesterday by Spain's King Juan Carlos I at a congress attended by 4000 international mathematicians.

Professor Tao, of the University of California in Los Angeles, was honoured for being a "supreme problem-solver" who has made breakthroughs in areas including wave motion and prime numbers - which have applications in fibre optics and information security.

"He combines sheer technical power, an other-worldly ingenuity for hitting upon new ideas, and a startlingly natural point of view that leaves other mathematicians wondering, 'Why didn't anyone see that before?' " the citation said.

But Professor Tao said he had been surprised to receive the award. "It's still sinking in for me," he told the Herald.

Garth Gaudry, of the University of Melbourne, who taught Professor Tao from the age of 12 at Flinders University, and who attended the ceremony, said his former pupil richly deserved the honour.

Even as a 12-year-old he had exhibited stunning insight and creativity, Professor Gaudry said. "To be Terry's teacher was, for me, the privilege of a lifetime."

Professor Tao's mother, Grace, said she and her husband had simply helped all three of their highly talented sons to follow their passions when young. In Terry's case, this meant ferrying him between classes at primary school, high school and university. "He just loves maths. His mind is always thinking about problems," Mrs Tao said.

Only mathematicians under 40 are eligible for a Fields Medal and up to four are awarded by the International Mathematics Union every four years.

Last night's four winners included the reclusive Russian mathematician, Grigory Perelman, who solved a century-old mathematical puzzle called the Poincare Conjecture in 2002, making him eligible for a $US1 million ($1.3 million) cash prize from a US institute.

Professor Tao said he had been fortunate to have had good teachers and mentors when he was young. He added that the kind of maths he practised now required much more patience and thorough reading.