Terence Tao
fl. 1975, Adelaide, Australia
Australian-American mathematician working across harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics and number theory, known for the Green–Tao theorem and for prolific collaborative research on primes.
Terence Tao was born in Adelaide to parents who had immigrated from Hong Kong, and showed prodigious talent from early childhood, winning an International Mathematical Olympiad gold medal at 13 — still the youngest ever. He completed bachelor's and master's degrees at Flinders University by 16, then earned his PhD at Princeton University in 1996 under Elias Stein at 20. He joined UCLA in 1996, becoming a full professor at 24, the youngest in the university's history, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.
Tao's research spans an unusually wide range: harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, compressed sensing, random matrix theory, additive combinatorics, and analytic number theory, often through highly productive collaborations. With Ben Green he proved the Green–Tao theorem (2004): the prime numbers contain arithmetic progressions of every finite length, despite having density zero. He has also contributed to the study of the Collatz conjecture, showing that almost all orbits attain almost bounded values, and to the twin prime conjecture through the Polymath8 project that improved Yitang Zhang's bound on prime gaps.
Tao received the Fields Medal in 2006 "for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive number theory," the Crafoord Prize in 2012 jointly with Jean Bourgain, and the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2015. He remains at UCLA, where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in Mathematics, and is widely known for his mathematics blog and open collaborative Polymath projects.
Workplaces: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Australia, United States