Speaking at 4 months, bachelor’s at 10 years, Doctor by 17: Amazing Child Prodigies
Posted in Education Funding News |December 21st, 2007Alia Sabur is a well known American child prodigy. Born in February of 1989, Alia was one of the youngest people to ever enter college. She attended SUNY Stony Brook at 10 years old, and graduated summa-cum-laude at age 14. She had also received a black belt in Tae Kwon Do at the young age of 9. She was accepted to Drexel University to complete her Ph.D. degree at the age of 14 in the area of Material Science and Engineering. According to her website she had started walking and talking at 8 months old, and was reading full novels by age two. She also began writing around the same time. She had completed the entire elementary school curriculum by the end of kindergarten and completed the New York Stat math regents (grade 9) at eight years old. Alia is also considered a musical prodigy, performing Concerto No. 1 and beginning clarinet studies with Ricardo Morales in 2000 at age 11. In 2004 Alia was named the DDSEG (Department of Defense) Fellow, the youngest ever named.
Kim Ung-Yong, a former Korean child prodigy was born in 1963 and had a record IQ of 210 on the Stanford-Binet test. He began learning differential calculus when he was only three years old, and even solved complicated differential and integral problems on TV at that age. Furthermore, he was also able to show his fluency in German, English, Korean, and Japanese at such a young age. Kim was invited to the US to consult with NASA when he was 11 years old, and went on to get a Ph.D. in Physics from Colorado State at 15 years old. Afterwards he began working for NASA and later, in 1978, continued his work in Korea. While living in Korea he received an additional doctorate (in civil engineering) and currently serves as faculty at a small Korean University.Song Yoo-geun, born November of 1997 is perhaps the world’s youngest university student. After passing two national exams (one for middle school and one for high school) in the same month he was accepted into Inha University in October of 2005. He became even more famous after receiving certification in “information-processing,” an achievement usually given only to professional engineers in their late twenties or thirties. He was 10 years old. Song had been enrolled in a “prodigy school” until 2003, but had to leave because it did not offer him sufficient challenges. During his pre-enrollment interview at Inha University, he demonstrated an understanding of the Schrödinger equation, differential equations, and quantum mechanical theory.
Tathagat Tulsi, born in 1987 in India is currently a scientist, but once held a Guinness World Record for being a child prodigy. He was able to finish high school at nine years old, earning a Bachelors of Science at age 10, with a Masters in Science one year later. His concentration after that was in quantum computing and at the age of 17, a notable research paper brought him an invitation by Bell Labs to collaborate with Lov Grover (inventor of a quantum searching algorithm). Tathagat was recently listed in Time magazine as a “superteen,” and in 2007 he was invited to an honorary dinner for Al Gore.
Balamurali Ambati M.D. is best known for becoming the youngest doctor ever. In 1995, at the mere age of 17 he graduated from the prestigious Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Harvard University and a fellowship in cornea & refractive surgery at Duke Hospital. In addition, he has racked up numerous esteemed awards including, winning the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and becoming a National Merit Scholar. He is now faculty of the Medical College of Georgia where he practices clinical ophthalmology and leads research in areas including corneal angiogenenesis and the outcomes of corneal refractive surgery. In his free time he volunteers with ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital to provide ophthalmic care and teach medical professionals in developing nations.
Sho Yano, born in 1990, may give Balamurali Ambati M.D. (above) a run for his money as the youngest doctor ever. He is currently a student in the MD/PhD program at University of Chicago. When Sho began to play Chopin on the piano at age 3 and reportedly scored over 200 on an I.Q. test his mother decided to home school him through the 12th grade level. At age 9 he was accepted into Loyola University Chicago and graduated summa-cum-laude at age 12.
Michael Kearney began to speak at the age of 4 months and by 6 months had a strong enough grasp on the English language to say to his pediatrician “I have a left ear infection.” Unfortunately, at a young age he was also diagnosed with ADD but of course this did not stop this child prodigy from achieving academic success. He finished high school at age 6, received an Associate of Science degree in geology at age 8, and a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama at age 10, making him the worlds youngest university graduate. He received his first Master’s degree in biochemistry from Middle Tennessee State University at age 14. His thesis title was “Kinetic Isotope Effects of Thymidine Phosphorylase.” By taking a position at Vanderbilt University at age 16 Michael became the youngest person to teach at a college. To relax, Michael enjoys playing a few hands of Texas Hold’em Poker.Andrey Khlopin is a young child prodigy just beginning to gain attention. In 1997 he was born in Krasnodar, one of Russia’s southern regions. When he was only 4 years old a meteorite fell near his small village and this was enough to ignite his passion for astronomy. At age 9 this child prodigy was able to disprove a 150-year-old astronomical theory that explained how the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was formed. Although Andrey is still attending school with children his age his homework never takes him more than 15 minutes, after which he prepares to give lectures at the near by Kuban State University. It will be exciting to watch Andrey mature.