Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Terence Tao

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Terence Tao was born on 17th July 1975 in Adelaide, Australia. He is a famed Australian American mathematician best known for making many important contributions to the field of mathematics. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA).

Tao has taken interest in research of topics that include; harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, compressed sensing, and analytic number theory. In 2006, he received Fields Medal and in 2014, a Breakthrough Prize in mathematics.

He has been the author and co-author of over 300 research papers. Tao is broadly known as one of the greatest living mathematicians. Here are some facts about Tao;

1. He’s from a family of mathematicians

Tao’s parents are first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong to Australia. His father, Billy Tao was a pediatrician who earned his medical degree from Hong Kong University while his mother Grace also from Hong Kong received a 1st class honors degree in astrophysics and mathematics at Hong Kong University, and served as a secondary teacher of mathematics and physics in Hong kong.

He has two brothers who live in Australia and both formerly represented the country at the International Mathematical Olympiad. He exhibited his mathematical abilities from the early age of 9. In 1986,1987 and 1988 he won bronze, silver, and old medals sequentially. He remains the youngest winner of each of the 3 medals in the Olympiad’s history, having won the gold medal in 1988 when he was 13 years.

2. Tao won numerous mathematician honors and recognition around the world

Terence Tao is famously recognized as the greatest living mathematician in the world. He won numerous mathematician honors including; the Fulbright scholarship in 1992, and the Packard fellowship in 1999. Salem prize for his work in harmonic analysis and on related questions in geometric measure theory and partial differential equations in 2000, and Bocher Memorial prize for global regularity of wave maps in 2003.

Australian Mathematical Society Medal in 2005, Fields medal in 2006, Fellow of Royal Society in 2007, Alan T.Waterman Award for his surprising and original contributions to many fields of mathematics, Onsager medal in 2008, Inducted into American Academy of arts in 2009, King Faisal I international prize, Nemmers prize, and Polya prize in 2012.

Breakthrough prize and Royal medal in 2014, PROSE Award in 2015, Riemann prize in 2019, Princess of Australias Award and Bolyai prize in 2020, IEEE Jack S.Kilby signal processing Medal, and USIA Award in 2021.

3. He has been featured in famous media outlets

Terence Tao is a mathematician whose deep and original insights across a broad range of research areas have had a profound and lasting impact. He has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Popular science, and many other media outlets for his own work on partial differential equations. He has also made significant contributions to computer science and statistical analysis.

4. He was selected as one of President Joe Bidens Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Terence Tao, UCLA professor of mathematics was selected by President Joe Biden as one of the 30 members and America’s most recognized leaders in science and Technology to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The advisory committee was established by President Eisenhower in 1957 after the launch of Sputnik. The council is the sole body of external advisers charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House to address the country’s most pressing challenges.

5. He published nearly 350 research papers and books

Tao is the author of over 300 articles. In 2006, he published; Solving mathematical problems, Nonlinear dispersive equations, and Additive combinatorics(Cambridge studies in advanced mathematics).In 2008, he published structure and randomness(American mathematical society)pages from year one of a mathematical blog, In 2009, Poincare’s legacies, pages from year two part I of a mathematical blog, and Poincare’s legacies, pages from year two part II of a mathematical blog.

In 2010, he published an epsilon of room I real analysis pages from year three of a mathematical blog and an epsilon of room II pages from year three of a mathematical blog. In 2011 an introduction to measure theory, and in 2012 topics on random matrix theory and Higher order Fourier analysis.

In 2013 compactness and contradiction, in2014 Analysis I.Texts and readings in mathematics vol 37, Analysis II. Texts and readings in mathematics vol 38 and Hilbert’s fifth problem and related topics. In 2015, he published Expansion in finite simple groups of lie type.

6. Tao started teaching at the age of 2

When Tao was two years old his parents came to the realization that he had something unique from other children. He used to teach five-year-old children to spell and add numbers and when asked how he learned the skills he said that he had been watching sesame street on television.

7. He is one of the greatest mathematicians of our time

Tao has been called the greatest mathematician of his generation and is with no doubt the greatest living mathematician. He was a child with exceptional qualities and abilities and also the youngest ever to win a medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad when he was 10.

8. Tao discovered a progression of length in numbers

In work with the British mathematician Ben Green together they proved the Green-Tao Theorem in which the discovery reveals that the set o prime numbers contain arithmetic progressions of any length. For example, a progression of five numbers;-3,7,11,15,19, is an arithmetic progression where successive numbers differ by 6. The theorem is well known among both amateur and professional mathematicians.

9. He was nominated for the first Australian of the year 2007

In 2007, Terence Tao was the finalist to become Australian of the year to recognize his outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement. The Australian of the year is a program of the National Australian Day council set to honor an exceptional group of highly respected Australians.The medal is awarded every four years to researchers under 40 years of age.

10. He finished his Ph.D. at the tender age of 21

Tao was a graduate student at Princeton University under the direction of Elias Stein from 1992 to 1996 where he completed his Ph.D. in harmonic analysis, PDE, combinatorics, and a number of theories at the age of 21. He joined the University of California, Los Angeles same year and UCLA promoted him to full professor at the age of 24. He is sometimes called “Mozart of math” for his extraordinary breadth of achievement.

Terence Tao is one of the greatest mathematicians in the world known for his approval of the progression of prime numbers and great achievements and honors . He is a professor at UCLA who has been precocious his entire life.