Brainy Boys
The men below all revealed their remarkable abilities as young boys.
William James Sidis
William James Sidis (April 1, 1898 – July 17, 1944) was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic abilities. He became famous first for his precocity, and later for his eccentricity and withdrawal from the public eye. He avoided mathematics entirely in later life, writing on other subjects under a number of pseudonyms. With an estimated ratio IQ of over 250, he is often cited as one of the most intelligent people who ever lived.
William James Sidis was born to Russian-Jewish immigrants on April 1, 1898, in New York City. His father, Boris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D., had emigrated in 1887 to escape political persecution. His mother, Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, M.D., and her family had fled the pogroms in 1889. Sarah attended Boston University and graduated from its School of Medicine in 1897. William was named after his godfather, Boris’s friend and colleague, the American philosopher William James.
Instead of the more common disciplinary approach to parenting, Sidis’s parents believed in nurturing a precocious and fearless love of knowledge, for which they were criticized. Sidis could read the New York Times at 18 months, had reportedly taught himself eight languages (Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian) by age eight, and invented another, which he called Vendergood.
Although the University had previously refused to let his father enroll him at age nine because he was still a child, Sidis set a record in 1909 by becoming the youngest person to enroll at Harvard College. He was 11 years old, and entered Harvard as part of a program to enroll gifted students early.
In early 1910, his mastery of higher mathematics was such that he lectured the Harvard Mathematical Club on four-dimensional bodies, prompting MIT professor Daniel F. Comstock to predict that Sidis would become a great mathematician and a leader in that science in the future. Sidis began taking a full-time course load in 1910 and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, on June 18, 1914, at age 16.
Akrit Jaswal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Akrit Jaswal (born April 23, 1993) is an Indian adolescent who has been hailed as a child prodigy who has gained fame in his native India as a physician, despite never having attended medical school. He gained fame for performing surgery at the age of seven.[1]He has grown up in the state Himachal Pradesh, India.
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According to his mother Raksha Kumari Jaswal, Akrit was an early starter, skipped the toddler stage and started walking. He started speaking in his 10th month and was reading Shakespeare at the age of 5. Akrit developed a passion for science and anatomy at an early age. Doctors at local hospitals took notice and started allowing him to observe surgeries when he was 6 years old. Inspired by what he saw, Akrit read everything he could on the topic. When he was 7 years old an impoverished family heard about his amazing abilities, they asked if he would operate on their daughter for free. Her surgery was a celebrated success.
After the surgery, Akrit was hailed as a medical genius in India. Neighbors and strangers flocked to him for advice and treatment. At age 12, Akrit was admitted to a Punjab University. He’s the youngest student ever to attend an Indian university. That same year, he was also invited to London‘s famed Imperial College to exchange ideas with scientists on the cutting edge of medical research. Akrit says he has millions of medical ideas, but he’s currently focused on developing a cure for cancer. “I’ve developed a concept called oral gene therapy on the basis of my research and my theories”, he says, “I’m quite dedicated towards working on this mechanism.”
Growing up, Akrit says he used to see cancer patients lying on the side of the road because they couldn’t afford treatment or hospitals had no space for them. Now, he wants to use his intellect to ease their suffering. “[I’ve been] going to hospitals since the age of 6, so I have seen firsthand people suffering from pain,” he says. “I get very sad, and so that’s the main motive of my passion about medicine, my passion about cancer.” Currently, Akrit is working toward a bachelor’s degree in zoology, botany and chemistry. Someday, he hopes to continue his studies at Harvard University.[2]
He became India’s youngest university student studying for a BSc in a Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. He is currently studying for a masters degree in applied chemistry. He possesses books such as Gray’s Anatomy, and textbooks on surgery, anaesthesia, anatomy, physiology, cancer, and others. Akrit claims to have mastered them with his daily habit of studying for an hour.
He has an estimated IQ of 146 from a single test.[3]
Akrit Jaswal is considered to be a reincarnation in his local village. He is consulted by neighbours and people from surrounding areas regarding ailments, prescriptions and courses of treatments. He claims to have been working on a cure for cancer for several years, based on theories of oral gene therapy. However, his work towards a cure for cancer was criticised by British doctors and researchers since they claim his understanding on the topic was vague.
In his spare time, Akrit enjoys playing and watching cricket.
Gregory Smith
Young Mr. Smith Goes to College
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Jennifer Lenhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 7, 1999; Page A01
ASHLAND, Va., Sept. 6 –– At precisely 8 a.m. today, Gregory Smith — boy genius — strode across the rain-soaked campus of Randolph-Macon College, his mom and dad in tow.
It was the first day of the fall semester at Randolph-Macon, and Greg, a 10-year-old who only three years ago started second grade, was eager to begin his freshman year. He had a carefully picked course load of 17 credits, including Calculus I, Physics, French III and the honors course Warfare in Antiquity.
But Greg wasn’t going to be allowed to sit in his first college classroom without a preliminary news conference. So he paused for photographs and public small talk with Roger H. Martin, president of Randolph-Macon, who declared Greg “an exceptional young man.”
Chest out, chin up, Greg, who stands 54 inches tall, had to look skyward to talk to Martin.
“Today’s one of the most exciting days of my life,” said the poised boy with the mop of whitish-blond hair, whose official biography states that he plans to have three PhDs by 33. “Ever since I was 4 years old, I dreamed of starting college.”
For Greg’s parents, Janet and Bob Smith, Randolph-Macon was the right choice because of its “peaceful” environment and a faculty devoted to working closely with students. (The school also threw in a full, four-year scholarship, worth roughly $70,000.) In return, Randolph-Macon enrolled a student who already has appeared on “David Letterman” and whose exploits are likely to continue attracting attention to the 169-year-old school at least until he’s a teenager.
Long before he began to dream of college, Greg’s parents sensed they had a very unusual child. Today, Janet Smith, 46, described early signs of what was to come: memorizing and reciting books at 14 months; adding numbers at 18 months. In an IQ test at 5, Greg “tested off the bell curve,” she said.
In one year alone, Greg went from second grade to eighth grade, skipping third grade altogether and completing an Algebra 1 course in only 10 weeks. He was just 7. He flew through the high school curriculum in 22 months.
Greg is the Smiths’ only child, and they have remade their lives to accommodate his unique gifts. The Smiths have sold their homes and moved twice — first from Pennsylvania to Florida, and then last summer to a small subdivision near Charlottesville — in pursuit of what they believe to be the best educational opportunities for their son.
Bob Smith, 46, a microbiologist with a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, gave up a research job with a pharmaceutical firm in Pennsylvania, and Janet Smith left behind her work as director of her own arts center in Lititz, Pa., which offered classes in ballet, tap, jazz and baton twirling.
The family moved to Jacksonville after a nationwide search for a school system that would agree to let Greg advance through school at his own speedy pace. The Smiths arrived without any jobs lined up. Bob Smith later found employment as a teacher at Florida Community College in Jacksonville, and now with a publishing house in Virginia. Janet Smith stayed home and became Greg’s “full-time advocate.”
“We’ve made some major changes,” Bob Smith said. “I don’t really call it a sacrifice. To me, every possible change is a new door to a new opportunity.”
Their son is believed to be the youngest person ever to graduate from a public high school in Florida. The Smiths took what they called a calculated risk in allowing their son to move rapidly through school. “It’s not an easy thing to do,” Bob Smith said today. “It’s difficult to watch your child grow up so quickly.”
The parents said that they weighed their child’s need to be a child vs. his need to fulfill his potential — and school always came out ahead.
About two or three years ago, Bob Smith said, “word got out” that there was a genius in the midst of the other students at Fleming Island Elementary School in Jacksonville. Greg began receiving attention from the national media. A biography compiled by Randolph-Macon College shows that in 1998 he made appearances on “60 Minutes,” the “Today” show and “NBC Nightly News” as well as the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
A media-shy boy could be shellshocked by all the attention, Bob Smith allowed. But he said that his son, whose goals include developing space colonies and becoming president of the United States, thrives on the attention.
Greg, Bob Smith said, also has a message he wants to spread about nonviolence.
“Gregory loves to talk to the public,” Bob Smith said. “He has an agenda. It’s fun for him. When it stops being fun for him, we try to be attuned to that. Then it will stop.”
Greg said today that he arrived at college ready to make new friends. “As long as the other kids don’t bend my morals,” he said, “whatever they want to do I try to go along with.”
Under Greg’s moral code, for example, recreational burping is intolerable.
The young Smith also won’t keep anyone as a friend who likes violence in music or movies. It’s family policy to walk out of any movie after the third cuss word is heard, Bob Smith said.
The Smiths have said in interviews that Greg has some, but not many, friends his own age. For the senior prom, he took his mom. He will play with other children for a while, but then it gets boring. He’d rather be reading and learning.
When the decision rolled around about where to send Greg to college, Randolph-Macon, which was founded by Methodists in 1830, scored high, Bob Smith said.
“It’s going to be different than Orange Park High School,” Greg said. “It’s a nice small community that gives lots of interaction with the students. I think that’s very important.”
Most of the people on the 116-acre Ashland campus today were Birkenstock-wearing teenagers and twenty-somethings. Adult reporters who asked Greg whether he was concerned about making it through freshman year as a 10-year-old were met with a world-weary response: “Not in the slightest bit.” Unlike the other freshmen, who are required to live on campus, Greg will be going home every night.
Then he was off, gleefully sprint-walking across the leafy campus toward the physics building, his Kelly green polo shirt tucked smartly into pressed khakis, a hand casually placed in a pocket, his brown leather loafers spit-shiny.
College officials said that they anticipated a great deal of media interest in Greg’s arrival, so they decided to manage the dozen or so reporters and photographers who came to campus by scheduling news conferences before and after Greg’s first day of classes.
“He and his family both expressed the desire to be treated as a regular student, but we knew he would attract some attention, so we wanted to isolate that period when the press had access to him,” said Dean of Admissions John Conkright. “We didn’t want to disrupt his day or the day of the 400 other students who are here for their first day.”
For the first class of his college career — physics — Greg took a seat right in the middle of a U-shaped arrangement of tables, a pen at the ready for note-taking, eyes alight in anticipation of learning.
Several hours later, Greg and his parents were in high spirits as they gathered for a closing news conference, his father allowing that he was “one proud dad,” his mother sitting at the dais, beaming. Greg looked as fresh as if the day had just begun.
“I believe I’ve been given a special gift,” he said, “and I don’t know how or why I’ve been given it, but I want to use it to the best of my abilities to help mankind.”
Kim Ung-Yong
Kim Ung-Yong (born March 8, 1962) is a Korean child prodigy. Kim was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under “Highest IQ”; the book estimated the boy’s score at about 210.[1]
Shortly after birth, Kim began to display extraordinary intellectual ability. He began speaking at 6 months, could converse fluently by age 1, and was able to read Japanese, Korean, German, and English by his third birthday. On November 2, 1967, at age 4, he solved an advanced stochastic differential equation. Later, on Japanese television, he demonstrated his proficiency in Chinese, Spanish,[citation needed] Vietnamese, German, English, Japanese, and Korean. Even in early childhood, he began to write poetry and was an exceptional painter.
Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of 3 until he was 6.[citation needed] At the age of 7 he was invited to America by NASA.[citation needed] He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University[citation needed] before he was 16. In 1974, during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA[citation needed] and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978.
He went on to become a prominent scholar in that field and has published at least 90 papers[citation needed].
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