Mathematical genius

My parents told me that I was fascinated by numbers when I was two years old, and I tried to teach others to calculate with digital building blocks at that time. "

Elias Stein, Tao Zhexuan's mentor and Wolff Prize winner, once said that Tao Zhexuan was a genius once in a century.

At the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians on the 22nd of this month, when Bauer, President of the International Mathematical Union, announced the winner of this year's Fields Prize, a face of china appeared on the big screen, that is, Australian Chinese mathematician Tao Zhexuan.

Tao Zhexuan won this award for his research achievements in harmonic analysis, and he became the second China native to win this award after Professor Qiu Chengtong, the first mathematician in China 1982 won the Fields Prize.

Tao Zhexuan, who just turned 3 1 last month, is not only the youngest winner of the Fields Medal, but also the first Australian to win the Fields Medal.

The International Congress of Mathematicians is the highest-level global academic conference in the field of mathematical science and is known as the "Olympics" in the field of international mathematics. The Fields Medal awarded by the conference is known as the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics". Although Tao Zhexuan is the youngest winner, he has published more than 80 papers.

In view of his research achievements in harmonic analysis, he won this year's Fields Prize. In an exclusive interview with the news agency of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Tao Zhexuan said that he couldn't believe it after learning that he had won the Fields Prize. "This award is a great honor for me." .

On 22nd, Tao Zhexuan and two other winners, Russian Okunkov and French Werner, received the medals from Spanish King Carlos I with thunderous applause. Each winner will also receive a bonus of $65,438+0,500.

After winning the prize, Tao Zhexuan encouraged everyone to say, "I think the most important thing is to have the ability and freedom to play mathematics-find yourself some small challenges and design some small games." He also said: "My parents told me that I was fascinated by numbers when I was two years old. I tried to teach others to calculate with digital building blocks."

His record has not been broken so far.

According to Gaudry, a professor at the University of Melbourne, Tao Zhexuan showed amazing mathematical talent from an early age. He studied addition and subtraction at the age of two, calculus at the age of seven, middle school at the age of eight, mathematics at the age of 12, and graduated from university at the age of 16.

1986, 1987 and 1988, Tao Zhexuan became the youngest contestant in the international mathematical olympiad for three times, and won the bronze medal, silver medal and gold medal in turn. No one can break his record of winning the gold medal before 13 years old.

Tao Zhexuan studied for a postgraduate degree at Princeton University from 1992 to 1996, and received his doctorate at the age of 2/kloc-0. At the age of 24, he became a tenured professor of mathematics at UCLA.

Tao Zhexuan won several academic awards, including the Salem Award in 2000, the Bosch Memorial Award in 2002 and the Cray Research Award in 2003, in recognition of his contribution to analytical research. In 2005, he won the Levi L Conant Award. In 2004, Ben Green and Tao Zhexuan published a paper before Yin Gao, claiming to prove the existence of an arbitrarily long prime arithmetic progression.

Charles Fefman, winner of Fields Medal of Princeton University, recalled that Tao Zhexuan, a "prodigy", was brought to Princeton University by his father when he was 12 years old. "I thought he had a little more advantage than other prodigies I met, but now it seems a lot more." He said. Elias Stein, Tao Zhexuan's mentor and Wolff Prize winner, once said that Tao Zhexuan was a genius once in a century.

Now, Tao Zhexuan is regarded as the most powerful "mathematical brain trust" in the world, and his academic research involves many fields, including harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorial mathematics, analytic number theory and representation theory.

Not only that, Tao Zhexuan is an excellent team player. Fefuman said that Tao Zhexuan often calls world-class teams to overcome difficulties and strive to give full play to the advantages of each partner. "This is a rare ability." Fei Fuman said.

Nowadays, mathematicians are scrambling to get Tao Zhexuan interested in their research, and he is becoming a "fireman" for failed research. "If you are stuck on a problem, one of the ways is to get Tao Zhexuan interested in it." Fei Fuman said.

Modest him

At the award ceremony, Professor Tao Zhexuan was very modest and admitted that he felt a little "scared". This seems to best illustrate the traditional virtues of its orientals.

Stubborn him

If there is something he doesn't understand in class, he won't stop until he understands it. He often spends a lot of time thinking about some very simple problems until he fully understands them.

He is a genius.

Tao Zhexuan's colleague at the University of California said, "He is like Mozart. Mathematics seems to flow out of his mind, but he doesn't have Mozart's personality problems. Everyone likes him very much. "

Persistent him

Tao Zhexuan loves mathematics deeply. He encouraged everyone to say, "The most important thing to cultivate interest in mathematics is to play mathematics, find yourself some small challenges and design some small games."

All three brothers have superhuman IQ and are good at music, chess and mathematics.

It is reported that Tao Zhexuan's parents are immigrants from Hongkong, China. His father, Tao, is a doctor, and his mother, high flyers, a science student from the University of Hong Kong, once taught in a middle school in Hong Kong.

Tao Zhexuan's IQ is as high as 220.

Tao Zhexuan's IQ is as high as 220, and his two younger brothers, Trevor Tao and David Tao, are also famous Australian prodigies. Although the three brothers have different looks and styles, their IQs all exceed 150.

Tao Zhexuan's younger brother Trevor Tao inherited the family tradition of "genius" and won many prizes in music, chess and math competitions. At the age of two, Trevor Tao was diagnosed with autism, but later went to the University of Adelaide to study math and music. Trevor Tao once said that he only knew that he had these talents, but he didn't know why.

As for the youngest, Tao Zhe, who is only 27 years old this year, has IQ 180. He studied science and economics at the Australian National University and was proficient in operating four musical instruments.

As the father of these three gifted children, Dr. Tao Guo Xiang described his family as "lucky" and his three sons as "happy". He said: "Whether they are smart or not, we just give them everything we can. My wife even quit her job as a math teacher to meet the special needs of children."

Archives of Tao Zhexuan, a mathematical genius

Date of birth:1July 975 17.

Place of birth: Adelaide, Australia

/kloc-obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics at the age of 0/6.

17 years old, completed the Master of Mathematics course.

2 1 year-old, became a Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton University.

At the age of 24, he was a professor of mathematics at UCLA.

Main awards won:

1986 ~ 1988 successively won the bronze medal, silver medal and gold medal in the Mathematical Olympics.

In 2000, he won the Salem Prize.

In 2002, he won the Boxer Memorial Award.

In 2003, he won the clay research award.

In 2005, the profit-making Vai L. conant Award was awarded.