Top 10 Child Prodigies

By the time most children his age were learning to construct complete sentences, this kid was dropping in on physics classes at Hanyang University. Kim Ung-Yong was so incredibly smart that the Guinness Book of World Records tabbed him as having the “Highest IQ,” only to abandon the category given his increasing intelligence. Kim had a fondness for the written word and painting as a child, but decided to accept a position with NASA where he worked from the age of eight to 16. Today, Kim works in business planning, but once upon a time he was THE child prodigy.

Here’s a child genius that was so dang smart, he might have told a few fibs just to amuse himself. Born to Jewish-Ukrainian parents, William James Sidis was raised in the Big Apple, and by the age of eight, he could speak eight languages along with one that he invented himself. In 1909, he became the youngest student ever to enroll at Harvard University at 11 years old and inadvertently shamed faculty with his expertise in applied mathematics. Many of Sidis’ claims have been challenged over the years, but no one can deny that he wrote four books as a kid and several more (under assumed names) when he was older. He was the shooting star of American academics in the early 20th century, but later settled for a life of seclusion.

Imagine a 6-month-old informing you of his ear infection. Well, this kid did such a thing during a visit to his pediatrician and was so rambunctious that his parents called him “The Tasmanian Devil.” In fact, his younger sister was also a child prodigy, which might have been one of several reasons that Michael Kevin Kearney decided to dream big and graduate from the University of South Alabama at age 10. When his friends were dealing with junior high problems and bad acne, Michael was busy working on his Masters Thesis entitled “Kinetic Isotope Effects of Thymidine Phosphorylase,” which would undoubtedly make the average student say, “Umm, could repeat the part of the stuff where you said all about…the things. Uh, the things?”

After receiving three degrees from American River College, this 11-year-old said “this isn’t that big of a deal for me.” And why would it be? Tanishq Abraham became a member of Mensa International at the age of four, and his younger sister joined him later. With a Cornell-educated father and a mother who’s a veterinarian, it’s safe to say that the junior Abraham has a fascination for academics and is undoubtedly aware of his intellectual bravado. While parents home school their kids for a variety of reasons, Tanishq was home schooled because he was simply bored with everything else. That happens when you’re a child prodigy.

Decades from now, or perhaps in a few years, the world may know this prodigy as the child who cured cancer. After all, Akrit Jaswal performed his first surgery at seven years of age and was making public speeches on cancer research five years later. He read Shakespeare and “Gray’s Anatomy” as a child in India, and due to his international fame, the young doctor is all too familiar with the spotlight and the concept of grace under pressure. Some kids need college to operate in the real world; this kid just needs a few tools.

He was born as Eldrick Tont Woods, but the world knows him as “Tiger.” As one of the most iconic athletes of all time, Tiger Woods came to prominence as a miniature master of golf before he was five years old. In 1978, he putted for Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart on “The Mike Douglas Show,” and the age of seven, he was arguably the most well known golfer in Orange County, California. There was a time when everybody EXPECTED Tiger Woods to dominate the competition, and that’s because he had literally been doing it since he was a toddler.

Now we go from one modern extravagant player to a categorical classic. In a time when white wigs were all the rage, there lived a German child who learned music theory from his family and local musicians. Upon earning a scholarship at the age of 14, Johann Sebastian Bach was introduced to European society and further developed the skills and work ethic that would make him perhaps the most popular composer of all time. Today, one can learn piano on the Internet; however back in the 1690s, this prodigy had to figuratively “feel” the music and let his fingers fly.

This Austrian found himself being marketed as a child prodigy on local posters thanks to his father. Johann van Beethoven was both a father and mentor to his little piano player, and by 13 years old, young Ludwig was publishing his own pieces. Upon traveling to Vienna with hopes of working with Mozart, the death of both Ludwig’s mother and father took him back to Bonn where he would establish himself as more than just a child prodigy, but as a national treasure, though he’d later go back to Vienna, of course.

Before this Spanish artist forever changed the conceptual guidelines of his craft, he developed his skills under the guidance of his father. In fact, when the Andalusian family moved to northwestern Spain in 1891, the senior Picasso realized that his offspring was the better artist. Like many child prodigies, Pablo Picasso enjoyed working by his own set of rules and strayed from formal teachings. He was literally in a class by himself back then, and school is still in session, figuratively speaking, through the works he produced over the course of his 91 years on Earth.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Elton John
1947 -
- Wayne Gretzky
1961 -
- Priyanshi Somani
1998 -
- Blaise Pascal
1623 - 1662

What do you call a child prodigy that other child prodigies hope to learn from? Well, you call him Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He composed his first three pieces within weeks of each other around the age of four or five, and he was known to convey a general understanding of music aside from his personal lessons. By eight, Mozart wrote his first symphony and began traveling to Europe to perform with fellow prodigies. He was born with a gift, and his creativity surpassed the natural gifts afforded to his fellow musicians.

Do you agree with our list? Who is your favorite child prodigy? For more mind-blowing Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.