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Friday math movie: Math Prodigy Terence Tao, UCLA

By Murray Bourne, 24 Jun 2011

According to the intro to this video on the "best mathematician in the world today":

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.

The background music is (mostly) Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Mozart, of course, was a brilliant music prodigy and Tao has been called the "Mozart of Math".

Some more info on Terrence:

His UCLA page, showing the subjects he has taught.

Wikipedia's article on Terence Tao, which points out his Australian roots.

His blog, What's new

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