There are many child geniuses and child prodigies in the world. It is amazing to see how those so young can achieve so much. It's extremely interesting to track their progress as they advance in to adulthood. Here are five of the most intelligent young people on the planet (that we know of) today.
TANISHQ MATHEW ABRAHAM & TIARA THANKAM ABRAHAM
We begin with something rather special- the first and second young persons on this list are siblings. Tanishq and Tiara are twelve and ten respectively, and are American with Asian Indian ancestry.
Both children are members of Mensa- both joining at four years of age. They are not only the youngest siblings to join the high-IQ society, but also the youngest South Asians. The requirements to join Mensa are to score about 98% on the Mensa IQ test. Tanishq scored an incredible 99.9%, with Tiara coming in at a close second with 99%.
Children of a software engineer and doctor of veterinary medicine, both children began displaying their intelligence at a very young age. At only four months old, Tanishq could flip the pages of storybooks and answer questions about what was happening in the book. When he reached five years old he completed the math courses offered by Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth in less than six months. At six, he participated in high school and college level classes online.
At seven, Tanishq enrolled at American River College and completed courses in Geology and Astronomy.
He earned As in both of these courses and came out as the top student of both classes. He was the youngest ever student enrolled in on-campus courses at this college. When he reached eight years old, he completed an intensive biotechnology semester. By the time Tanishq was nine, he had completed one-third of the units needed to graduate with an Associates degree. At ten years of age, Tanishq became the youngest office bearer of Phi Theta Kappa as he became President of Communications.
Tanishq has also been recognized as the youngest person to discover astronomical bodies and events. When he was eight years old he had volunteered for an online citzen science project, in which he scanned hundreds of NASA/KEPLER images and eventually found two Supernovae, an exoplanet and a solar storm.
Although Tanishq clearly is very talented in physical sciences, he also holds other interests. He has been formally trained in piano since the age of three, and was a chorister with the San Francisco Boys Chorus. He also enjoys chess, swimming, dancing and soccer.
Tiara is similar to her brother, in that at five years of age her reading skills were that of a 5th grader. Tiara has an interest in sciences- especially animals- also, however is more interested in the arts. Tiara created works of art entitled ‘My Brother, My Friend’ and ‘Rainbow Over Lake’ and three and four years old, and these works were awarded Honorable Mention at the California State Youth Art & Design Exposition 2011. At the same expo, another work titled ‘My Unicorn’ was awarded Third Place in the acrylic painting category. Tiara returned to the exposition in 2012 and won First Place for the acrylic painting ‘Golden Gate At Sunset’, Third place for ‘Humpty Dumpty’ mixed media collage and Honorable Mention for ‘Talking Parrot’ painting. At six years of age Tiara had her first public sale request for ‘Golden Gate at Sunset’. The same year, she became the youngest member of the Sacramento Children’s Chorus. Other interests of Tiara include swimming, sprinting, reading, writing and computers.
There are truly an incredible brother and sister. Both are hugely talented in widely different areas, and both are very successful.
ETHAN BORTNICK
Ethan Bortnick is a young thirteen year old from Florida who has performed nationally and internationally as a pianist, composer, singer and entertainer. Ethan uses musical talents to promote his charity work, as in addition to being a child prodigy he is also a very driven humanitarian.
At three years of age the young boy pleaded with his parents for piano lessons and discovered an ability to hear a song once and play it back note for note. This incredible ability is the musical equivalent of a photographic memory. He studied diverse artists and began composing his own music at the age of five. Surprisingly, Ethan does not come from a musical family.
It was also at the age of five that Ethan’s younger brother had three heart surgeries. Emotionally affected by his family situation Ethan was inspired to use his talents to help raise money for charity.
Since then he has raised a staggering $30,000,000 + for charity around the world. Ethan has performed with Elton John, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Beyonce, Reba McEntire and many other legends. He was also invited to record on the We Are The World 25 For Haiti record.
Ethan has toured the world, performing in South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada and of course the US. Most famously, he became the youngest entertainer to headline a show in Las Vegas in 2011, and the Guinness World Records certified this. Additionally, he is also the youngest musician to be endorsed by a premier instrument manufacturer- he holds a Gisbon Guitar/Baldwin Piano sponsorship.
Many television shows have had Ethan appear, such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America and Oprah. He also completed a feature film released in 2013, titled Anything is Possible, in which he played the main character Nathan and also co-wrote all of the songs in the film, as well as scoring the background music.
Ethan is an outstandingly talented young man, yet what is more impressive than his talent is his outlook on life: “As long as the audience is enjoying the music, having fun, smiling, and dancing, I’m happy and I love it!”
JACOB BARNETT
Jacob is one of the world’s most promising physicists. He has astounded everybody around him- especially as when he was a toddler he stopped speaking for a year and a half and was diagnosed with mild to severe autism. Jacob’s mother Kristine says that people were giving up on her son, and a teacher at his school had told her he would not need his alphabet cards, as he would never learn how to read. Kristine decided to home school her son and Jacob surprised everyone.
At eight years old, Jacob Barnett began auditing physics classes at Indiana University. At nine, when playing with shapes, Jacob built a series of mathematical models that expanded Einstein’s field of relativity.
A professor at Princeton University described this as groundbreaking. Jacob enrolled in to university full-time at twelve, and also published his first physics paper around this time. Then at fifteen, he became the youngest researcher to ever be accepted to Waterloo, Ontario’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. The family relocated from Indiana to Waterloo, and Jacob is studying for his highly competitive master’s degree alongside some of the top students in the world. Jacob is one of the 30 students accepted a year from approximately 350 applicants.
Jacob is quickly becoming famous through his TEDx talk on YouTube, which has almost two million views. What is most inspiring about this young genius is that despite his high level of intelligence and inspiring success story he remains humble about his abilities:
“There are a lot of people that appear to be amazed by my story, but in my opinion I’m just a 15-year-old who’s very motivated about his subject and got started early and I know what I want to do”
MARCH TIAN BOEDIHARDJO
March Tian Boedihardjo is a young child prodigy of Chinese Indonesian descent, born in 1998. March as born in Hong Kong, but moved to the United Kingdom in 2005 when his older brother Horatio began studying at Oxford University. (Horatio was one of the university’s youngest students of Oxford’s DPhil Program).
March sat his A-Levels at the age of nine years old, and passed with an A in Math and Further Math and a B in Statistics. He also sat his GCSEs at the same time, and gained eight GCSEs. Following these results, March was accepted at Hong Kong Baptist University and became the youngest every university student in Hong Kong.
The young boy had a five year curriculum programme designed especially for him, yet on his first day he complained that the classes were too easy for him.
From the first year examinations March was entered into the Dean’s List, for obtaining B+ and A= in most of the math courses and passing with a GPA of 3.00-3.49, no grades below C for any semester. March continued the good work and became a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Science in addition to a Master of Philosophy after completing his programme in 2011- one year early. After graduating, March travelled to Texas A&M University, where he is conducting collaborative research with two Math professors in the capacity of a visiting scholar.
With already so much achieved at such a young age it is going to be exciting what else March can achieve in his lifetime.
So there you have it folks, some super bright kids who continue to shine and promise to shape the future. Please share their stories with your own children and encourage to "dream big"!
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