Who is the smartest person on Earth now? The smartest people in the world throughout history: list, ranking and achievements The smartest people on the planet

There are no indicators of intelligence or measures of a person’s intelligence. But how can you determine who is the smartest person in the world at the moment? We will start from the IQ level. The higher this indicator, the smarter the person.

The smartest people in the world:

1. The highest IQ - 230 - is from Australian citizen Terence Tao. This smartest person in the world first showed his erudition at the age of two. Young Terence was able to solve a simple arithmetic problem and even tried to teach counting to his peer friend.

By the age of five, Terence (who is Chinese) was fluent in English and was able to solve complex math problems in the Junior High program. From an early age, the genius fell in love with higher mathematics and often attended lectures. From the age of 12 he participated in international mathematical Olympiads.

In his youth, he expanded his specialization to solving differential equations of increased complexity. Began studying analytical number theory. At the age of 20 he became a professor at the University of California and received his doctorate.

He subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he now teaches. By the age of 40, he became the author of 250 scientific publications.

1. Marilyn Vos Savant has almost caught up with Terence Tao in terms of IQ. Hers is 228. She found her calling in creativity. Marilyn is a popular American writer and journalist. In addition, she is known as the Guinness World Record holder for IQ.

Her journalistic work sometimes discourages readers. She writes her Ask Marilyn column in Parade magazine, and also publishes puzzles and charades there.

Sometimes readers perceive her answers with surprise, since they do not always correspond to common sense. Therefore, there are both admirers of her intelligence and opponents who consider her intuitive answers to be stupid.

1. Another smartest person is the third person in our ranking. This is Christopher Hirata. His IQ is 225. Like most geniuses, his exceptionalism was noticed since childhood. He always won school competitions, and at the age of 14 he became a student.

At the age of 16, Christopher began working for NASA. He explored Mars and developed programs to study distant planets.

By his 22nd birthday, he received a doctorate in astrophysics. Interested in energy conversion issues and gravity.

1. Kim Ung-Yong with a score of 210 is a real genius, and not just a smart person. At the age of four, he not only mastered four languages, but also learned to read them. At the same time, he became famous thanks to television, when he solved a complex mathematical problem in front of the audience.

At the age of 8, Kim entered the University of Colorado on the recommendation of NASA. After completing his studies, he remained to work there, and at the age of 18 he returned to Korea and became a teacher.

1. The Greek Evangelos Katsioulis, with an IQ ranging from 198 to 205, became famous in psychiatry. He conducts a medical practice and conducts unique medical research in his specialization.

Interested in questions of genius, Evangelos founded several associations that united the smartest people on the planet. The psychiatrist had an excellent understanding of philosophy and received a doctorate in psychopharmacology.

1. American Christopher Langan is known to the world as a weight lifting champion. But he can also boast of his intelligence. His IQ is 195. However, Christopher could not develop his intellectual abilities since childhood, since after his father left, his family experienced financial difficulties. In addition, no one taught the boy, and he learned all the secrets of science and sports on his own.

At the age of one, Christopher had already learned to speak, and at the age of 4, he could read. While studying at the university, he was on equal terms with the professors in knowledge.

But the need to provide for his family forced him to fall out of the intellectual environment for 20 years. However, after the genius’s personal life improved, he plunged headlong into science. His scientific work on the theory of the cognitive model of the Universe caused great excitement.

1. Film actor and producer Rick Rosner has a high intelligence (IQ - 192), but he learned about his genius already at a fairly mature age. All his life he strived for universal recognition and found peace only when he became the producer of his own television show.

Only after this did he begin to devote more time to science. On his way to fame, he had to work in many places. He was a waiter and a stripper, a model.

Having experienced fame, Rick never stops working hard on his body - he trains every day and eats only healthy food. His main fear is old age and decay.

1. The Croatian scientist Mislav Predavec can boast of the same intellectual indicator (192). But the professor does not often use his intellect in everyday life. So, he doesn’t want to think about how to top up his mobile phone account or how to insert a SIM card into it. He entrusts these matters to his wife.

Intellectually, Mislav is only interested in how to pass difficult levels in computer games. He loves solving puzzles and playing Mafia.

1. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov has an IQ of 190. He is one of the ten smartest people on the planet. Fame came to Kasparov when he beat Anatoly Karpov and received the champion title. In 1997, he played several games with artificial intelligence to a draw.

Judging by his smart parents, we can say that Harry inherited the gene for high intelligence. Both mom and dad were engineers, played chess well and loved solving puzzles. So, from childhood, the future chess champion was surrounded by the right environment for the development of the mind.

1. Handsome film actor James Woods closes this ranking with an IQ of 180. He has starred in more than 50 films, including the films Justice League, Superheroes, Once Upon a Time in America.

James's high IQ was discovered during his university years. Studying was easy for the future “superhero”.

But his complex character prevented him from achieving recognition in the scientific community. Professors refused to work with him because James argued with them and did not value their opinions.

As can be seen from this rating, you can be born a genius, but not use your gift to study high matters or develop complex theories. Many of the smartest people with the highest IQs on the planet did not devote themselves to science, but used their minds to achieve mundane goals.

Most of what the whole world knows and can do today was once invented by the greatest and most brilliant minds of mankind. Artists, alchemists, presidents, physicists and generals - the scale of the intellect of these people was able to change the worldview of all humanity and make our lives a little better. These 10 historical figures are unanimously considered the smartest people in history.

Leonardo da Vinci

The life of this genius was full of discoveries and research. The Italian master was born on April 15, 1452 and already in childhood demonstrated unique abilities. Da Vinci was an excellent artist, chemist and mathematician - the list of his achievements continues to this day. Here are just a few of his inventions, both real and attributed to him: a parachute, a bicycle, a tank, a searchlight, a catapult, a telescope and dozens of other inventions that were no less futuristic for their time. In addition, da Vinci left the world a number of true masterpieces of painting, such as La Gioconda and The Last Supper.



Alexander the Great

If a person has been called “great” for thousands of years, then he really deserves it. The hereditary ruler of Macedonia, a small country in the Balkans, managed to gather under his command the most powerful army in the world and conquer as many lands as no one had managed before. However, the commander’s achievements were questioned by ancient philosophers who did not see the greatness of glory in the seizure of new lands. Seneca called Alexander an unhappy man, who was driven into unknown lands by passion for ambition and cruelty and who tried to subjugate everything except passions, for from the sciences he had to learn “how small the land is, whose insignificant part he captured.”



Michelangelo

Just like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo was able to achieve incredible heights in art, for which he received recognition during his lifetime. Michelangelo's frescoes adorned the walls of the best buildings of his era - for the first time in history, the author conceptualized architectural space as an artist's canvas. Michelangelo's genius left its mark not only on the art of the Renaissance, but also on all subsequent world culture. At the same time, Michelangelo wrote no less wonderful poems. Michelangelo's poetic talent fully manifested itself only towards the end of his life. Some of the great master's poems were set to music and already during his lifetime gained considerable popularity, but his sonnets and madrigals were first published only in 1623. About 300 poems by Michelangelo have survived to this day.



William Shakespeare

The first professional playwright in history established such a high level of quality from the very beginning that it remains relevant to this day. Without even a formal university education, Shakespeare created literary masterpieces that will forever go down in human history. The extant works, including some written jointly with other authors, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems and 3 epitaphs. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into all major languages ​​and are performed more often than the works of other playwrights.



Voltaire

Marie Arouet, better known by his pseudonym Voltaire, was born in Paris in 1694. Considered one of the most powerful minds of his time, he left an incredibly prolific legacy of numerous scientific and philosophical treatises. Throughout his life, Voltaire vigorously defended the distinction between natural science and philosophy, which laid the foundation for the modern differentiation of sciences.



Galileo Galilei

Engineer, physicist, mechanic, astronomer, philosopher and mathematician Galileo Galilei had an incredibly powerful influence on science. The invention of the telescope and the discoveries made with its help contributed to the establishment of the heliocentric system of the world, which Galileo actively promoted. In fact, Galileo proved to the world that the Earth does not stand still, but, together with other planets, revolves around the sun.



Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz was a German philosopher and logician who laid the foundations of modern mathematics. The principles of differential and integral calculus became basic for all scientists of subsequent generations. In 1676, Leibniz founded a new formulation of the laws of motion, dynamics, in which he first explored kinetic energy and its interactions.



Sir Isaac Newton

Powerful intellect, participation in government affairs and scientific discoveries on a global scale are nothing more than commonplace for Sir Isaac Newton. Newton's mind worked brilliantly - he outlined the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of mechanics, which became the basis of classical mechanics, developed differential and integral calculus, color theory, laid the foundations of modern physical optics, and created many other mathematical and physical theories.



Albert Einstein

The name Albert Einstein is virtually synonymous with genius today. Einstein is the author of more than 300 scientific papers on physics, as well as about 150 books and articles in the field of history and philosophy of science. He developed several significant physical theories, including the famous theory of relativity, in which he first described the interaction of mass and energy in the famous formula E = mc2.



Nikola Tesla

The Lord of Lightning Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia. His experiments with alternating current laid the foundations of modern electrical engineering. Tesla developed many devices operating on alternating current, polyphase systems, synchronous generators and asynchronous electric motors, which allowed for the so-called second stage of the industrial revolution.

Assessing a person’s intellectual level in quantitative terms began in 1912, when the German scientist William Stern introduced the concept of “Intelligence Quotient,” or IQ. The IQ level is determined on the basis of special tests that determine a person’s thinking abilities (not to be confused with erudition). The average IQ level is 100 units, and an indicator of less than 70 characterizes a person’s mental retardation.

According to statistics:

50% of people have an IQ between 90-110 units;

2.5% of people have an intelligence of 130 to 140 units;

2.5% of people have an IQ below 70;

0.5% of people have an IQ above 140 units and are called geniuses.

For example, the average IQ of Nobel Prize winners is 155-165.

The Nobel laureates were surpassed by as much as fifty units by Korean citizen Kim Ung-Yong, who was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the smartest person in the world. His IQ is 210.

Kim Ung-Yong is called the Korean genius. He was born on March 7, 1963, and from a very early age he began to exhibit the abilities of a child prodigy. At six months he said his first word, and at one year he could speak freely, at three he began to read in Korean, Japanese, German and English.

In early childhood, Kim began to write poetry and showed himself to be a magnificent artist.

At the age of three, he gave an interview to LOOK magazine, where he announced his intention to become president in the future, and also expressed regret about the division of Korea and predicted that the first nation to set foot on the moon would dominate the world.

From the age of four to seven, Kim Ung-Yong attended classes at the University of Hanyang as a free student, and at the age of seven he moved to the United States at the invitation of the American Space Agency. In 1974, after graduating from the University of Colorado with a PhD in physics, Kim began working for NASA. In 1978 he returned to his homeland. Kim Ung-Yong is the author of more than 90 scientific papers.

The list of the smartest people on the planet also includes:

Christopher Mike Langan (USA) – IQ 195. Handyman and rancher. The smartest person in the USA.

Philip Emegwali (Nigeria) - IQ 190. Engineer, inventor, geologist.

Garry Kasparov – IQ 190 (Russia). World chess champion, author of books on chess.

John H. Sununu (Cuba) – IQ 180. Former Governor of New Hampshire and White House staffer.

Judith Polgar (Hungary) – IQ 170. Chess grandmaster, winner of the chess title “Woman of the Century”.

Stephen Hawking (Great Britain) – IQ 160. World-famous theoretical physicist, suffering from neuromuscular dystrophy and almost completely paralyzed.

William James Sidis (USA) – IQ 250. American prodigy, a native of a family of Russian Jewish emigrants, who in 1909, at the age of 11, became the youngest student in the history of Harvard University. He studied history, cosmology, psychology and was distinguished by eccentric antics. He died in 1944 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Russia has always been famous for its bright minds. Poets and writers, chemists and physicists, philosophers and teachers - throughout history there have been many people who have made a significant contribution to the development of world science and culture. Who can be called the smartest on the territory of our Motherland now?

Intelligence Score

Many people ask who they are - the smartest people in Russia. To answer this question, you first need to understand what, in fact, is called intellect and mind. The “smart” label usually goes to the person who can quickly solve a complex problem or, in front of everyone, propose a solution to a non-standard everyday problem. Usually around such a person the exclamations do not subside: “How smart you are!” But you can objectively determine the smartest people in Russia and in the world using such an indicator as the level of intelligence. More than half of the world's population has an IQ of about 110. Only 2.5% of the population can boast an IQ of over 130. Only 0.5% have an IQ of 0.5. The debate about who is among the ten smartest people in Russia continues to this day. Every day new minds are born on the territory of our Motherland. Their abilities in the future will be the subject of new heated debates among scientists and the public.

List of the smartest people

• Mikhail Lomonosov.
• Nikolay Lobachevsky.
• Sofya Kovalevskaya.
• Grigory Perelman.
• Anatoly Wasserman.
• Vitaly Ginzburg.
• Zhores Alferov.

And many others. Let's look at the biographies and interesting facts from the lives of some of them.

Grigory Perelman

Among the smartest people in Russia, the first place, of course, belongs to the mathematician Grigory Perelman. He gained his fame due to the fact that he was able to prove the Poincaré conjecture, and it is included in the list of seven “Millennium Problems”. It should be noted that this pretentious name was invented by journalists who did not want to attract public attention. It was invented by scientists themselves. The Poincaré conjecture ranks sixth on the list of these problems. Moreover, scientists emphasize its mathematical complexity.

For the common public, Grigory Perelman became famous due to his unusual style, which is completely inconsistent with general ideas about what a scientist should look like. It is interesting that the smartest person in Russia refused the prize, which is awarded to any person who managed to solve one of the “Millennium Problems”. The award amount is $1 million. A little later after the award of this prize, Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal (scientists often call this prize the Nobel Prize in mathematical research). Along with this medal, Perelman was to receive 15 thousand Canadian dollars. However, the scientist ignored this award too.

Qualities without which discoveries are impossible

Almost nothing is known about the life of Grigory Perelman. He lives with his mother in a Khrushchev-type apartment, in rather cramped conditions. Of interest are interviews with those scientists who know the great mathematician personally. For example, from an interview with Sergei Rushkin, it became known that Perelman worked on the proof of a very complex mathematical hypothesis for about nine years. The mathematician demonstrated a strong concentration of attention and focus on the problem - unlike many of his contemporaries who were prone to “clip” thinking. While working, Grigory Perelman did not know whether he would be able to solve the task he had set for himself. Since childhood, he had a very important quality for any good scientist - the ability to focus on one problem for a long time without hope of solving it.

Anatoly Wasserman - polymath and programmer

Many people say that the smartest person in Russia is Anatoly Wasserman. He gained fame throughout the post-Soviet space thanks to his numerous victories in the intellectual shows “What, where, when?”, “Own Game” and others. Wasserman was born in Odessa, into a Jewish family. His father was one of the most famous specialists in the field of thermophysics. About the mother, however, practically nothing is known. Wasserman's father had a serious influence on his entire subsequent life. According to Wasserman himself, he learned to read at the age of three and a half years. At eleven, he had already begun to study a fifteen-volume encyclopedia devoted to mechanical engineering. By his 14th birthday, Wasserman knew it practically by heart.

Early life and modern times

For a long time, the polymath was included in the ranking of the smartest people in Russia. However, Anatoly Wasserman was not an excellent student at school. During his school years, he had to defend himself from attacks from spiteful peers, and later also from teachers. Their pride could not stand the fact that the student made corrections to the information they taught during the lesson. Thus, although today Anatoly Wasserman is among the smartest people in Russia, he could never boast of good grades during his school years.

In the intellectual “Own Game” in 2004, Wasserman took the place of the best player of the decade. After receiving higher education, the famous erudite began working as a programmer, and at the age of 39 he tried himself in the journalistic field - he began writing articles for the computer press. Since 2012, he has been working as the host of the television program “Wasserman’s Reaction” on REN-TV.

Vitaly Ginzburg - Nobel Prize laureate

When asked what the name of the smartest person in Russia is, many answer with confidence: of course, it’s Vitaly Ginzburg. Nobel Prize winner, author of numerous studies in the field of physics and astrophysics, academician - this is an incomplete list of what Ginzburg did during his lifetime. In addition to the Nobel Prize, the scientist received many more awards: he was awarded the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, the S. I. Vavilov Medal, and the M. V. Lomonosov Prize. Unfortunately, the scientist passed away in 2009.

Vitaly Ginzburg was also known for his position on religion, and in particular Orthodoxy. He believed that faith was a personal choice and openly opposed the imposition of Orthodoxy in schools. Why did the scientist take this position? Everything is extremely simple: the basis of any religion is belief in the supernatural. But Ginzburg could not agree with the existence of miracles, since he had been studying physics all his life.

Character of a scientist

Ginzburg’s love of freedom was also evident in his actions: during the time of Stalin, he married a former prisoner, and in the 50s he completely fell under the “ideological steamroller.” After all, then the open struggle of the authorities against cosmopolitans began. Ginzburg took part in the creation of the hydrogen bomb - that is why, in spite of everything, Stalin involved him in top-secret work and subsequently awarded him the State Prize.

Vitaly Ginzburg was confident that the future of Russia lies in the hands of democracy, not authoritarianism. Science and education play a big role in the development of the country. Ginzburg believed that if education in Russia is given its due place, then many problems in the country will disappear by themselves.

Views on religion

Ginzburg made a big distinction between scientific and religious worldviews. The existence of God, the scientist believes, does not need to be proven, if only because his academic colleagues have not proven the opposite point of view. Ginsburg also distinguishes between religion and belief in God. “You can believe in the existence of God, or the Absolute (names can be anything), but not profess any religion,” the scientist emphasizes. He regards religion as a belief in miracles and fairy tales, and considers the Bible and the Koran to be a collection of miracles and a set of moral and ethical rules. The scientist emphasizes that whether they are considered sacred books or not is a personal matter for believers.

When you were in school, there was always a guy smarter than you in the class. But these powerful brains give a hundred points ahead even to the favorites of all the teachers together. These are the smartest people in the world - both in terms of IQ and contribution to their field of activity. From movie stars to columnists, from scientists to laboratory technicians, they are all changing the world.

Noam Chomsky is a world famous linguist, philosopher and political scientist. Studied and worked at several Ivy League universities. Chomsky is considered the "father of modern linguistics" and is Institute Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His IQ is unknown.

Although his name is much more famous than most of the people on this list, Stephen Hawking's IQ of 160 is lower than most of the brainiacs on this post. Nevertheless, his contribution to theoretical physics and the study of the Universe cannot be overestimated.

Manahel Thabet is a Yemeni economist and academic who is known as the youngest woman and the only Arab woman to receive a PhD in financial engineering with great honors. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including for her humanitarian work within the UN. Her IQ is 168.

Polgar is a chess grandmaster from Hungary. She is one of the greatest female chess players of all time. Her IQ is 170.

John Sununu, with an IQ of 180, has an amazing life story. Born in Cuba in 1939, Sununu later moved to the United States and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with 3 degrees). In addition to his excellent achievements in the sciences, Sununu also achieved impressive success in politics: he was a representative of New Hampshire, chief of staff of President George H. W. Bush, and also governor of New Hampshire from 1983-1989.

Carlsen, at 24 years old, is the youngest on this list. The IQ of the current world chess champion and probably one of the best chess players is unknown.

In fact, it's great when the head of state is so smart. The IQ of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is about 180. Hard to believe, right?

Pinker is a Canadian-American psychologist who teaches at Harvard University. He is considered one of the most influential scientists.

You may know him from his acting career, from films like The Virgin Killers or White House Down, or as the voice of Hades in Hercules. But did you know that his IQ is about 180? He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has a political science degree.

Emegwali is a Nigerian software engineer with an estimated IQ of 190.

Although her IQ is unknown, being a child prodigy, Ruth Lawrence graduated from Oxford at age 13. She is now a professor of mathematics at the Einstein Institute in Jerusalem.

Kripke is Institute Professor of Philosophy at Princeton. He is considered one of the most influential people in the field of logic and philosophy.

Kasparov is a former world chess champion, as well as a political activist and one of the representatives of the Russian opposition. Many consider him to be one of the best chess players in the world. He has an IQ of 190 and is a member of the Human Rights Foundation.

Rosner is a brilliant TV writer and TV show contestant with an IQ of 190-192 who had a rather strange career path: after 10 years in high school, he posed nude and did other strange things until he became a screenwriter. He is also known for taking careful care of his health. Well, and a powerful intellect, of course.

Katsioulis is a Greek doctor known for his IQ of 198-205. He is the founder of several associations of people with high IQs.

Although his IQ is unknown, this charismatic astrophysicist and space explorer is one of the most vibrant and visible people on the planet. He advocates for NASA expansion as well as social justice.

Kim Un-young is a Korean civil engineer and former Guinness World Records holder for the highest IQ (around 210). His IQ has been above 200 since the age of four.

Christopher Hirata is a former child prodigy with an IQ of 225. Physicist Hirata has worked with NASA and as a physics and astronomy teacher.

Although this number is disputed, Vos Savant is widely claimed to have one of the highest IQs on Earth (and the highest among women) at 228. She is well known for her "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade. Her husband is Dr. Robert Jerwick, famous for designing the first successfully implanted artificial heart.

Terence Tao is a Chinese-American mathematician whose IQ is 230. He has two equally gifted brothers.

Christopher Langan is considered one of the smartest people on Earth. He is an autodidact (self-taught) who managed to break through an extremely difficult childhood in Montana. His IQ is 195-210 points.