Terence Tao, is often referred to as the “Mozart of Mathematics” is like no other. He is also Adelaide’s own, that went on to serve the World.
Widely regarded as the greatest living mathematician, and a living legend.
He is currently the Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA). Holding the James and Carol Collins chair. He has authored or co-authored over 300 research papers and continues to be at the forefront of research in his field.
According to his bio, his topics of interest are harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, compressed sensing and analytic number theory.
The Tao family and Adelaide
Terence or Terry Tao was born in Adelaide on 17th July 1975.
God’s gift to the city. The same city that delivered Australia first 2 Nobel laureates for the country. Terence went on to win the Nobel prize equivalent for Mathematics, the Fields Medal in 2006.
Father and son, William and Lawrence Bragg were given the Nobel Prize in 1915. Both in the field of Physics. Interestingly Lawrence Bragg was awarded the prize at age 25, another young prodigy. I guess the water in Adelaide is different. William Bragg however graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with first class honours with a mathematical tripos.
J. M. Coetzee, celebrated author and Nobel Laureate would come to adopt the city of Adelaide as his home.
The migration to Adelaide
Terence’s parents Billy Tao and Grace Leong, both migrated from Hong Kong having met at the University of Hong Kong. The family dialect is Cantonese.
Billy was born in Shanghai moved to Hong Kong early. He graduated in Medicine. Grace born in Hong Kong of Cantonese descent scored first class honours in Mathematics and Physics. So the fruit did not fall far from the tree.
Terence has two younger siblings, Trevor and Nigel both still living in Australia. The last I am aware is that Trevor is with the country’s Defence Department in Adelaide in very esoteric field. Nigel is in Sydney with a well known FAANG company.
Trevor holds a Chess International Masters. It was at a Chess tournament at the University of Adelaide that I first set sight on Trevor or any of the Taos. I was not aware of Terence until someone pointed out Trevor and mentioned his sibling. I was new to the country.
Truly a very bright and exceptional family. We are lucky that Billy and Grace chose Adelaide. They could have picked any other well known migrant destination cities in North America or Europe. It was Adelaide they chose to have their 3 children. Grow and go to school in the city.
Terence’s early years in Adelaide
At the age of eight, Terence scored 760 on the SAT Maths Section. One of three students below the age of nine. Identified by John Hopkin’s Study of Exceptional Talent to have done so. And this is across the World.
“ Julian Stanley, Director of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, stated that Tao had the greatest mathematical reasoning ability he had found in years of intensive searching”
From the age of ten, Terence Tao went on to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Representing the country as it’s youngest participant from 1986 to 1988 winning a bronze, then a silver and finally gold.
Terence went on to graduate in 1991 from Flinders University, Adelaide. With Bachelors and Master’s degree in Mathematics at the age of 16.
The following year in 1992, he received the Fulbright scholarship to undertake research in Mathematics at Princeton University. He spent 4 years as a graduate student and in 1996 at the age of 21, received his PHD.
Australia gives up Terry to the World
By the age of 16, Adelaide and Australia had become aware of him . They also must have come to realise that we had to give Terence up. To the wider World for the sake of humanity.
We did so graciously. The was no attempt by local academia and the rest of Australia to hold him back. The writing was already on the wall. Despite out academic and research achievements. Terence was exceptional and the hotbed of mathematic research was in America.
But there is also the dream that one day he might return to his city of birth. I am certain our University of Adelaide and one of Australia’s big eight will delighted to open its doors. It did so for World famous novelist and Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, a South African who made his home in the Adelaide Hills.
Terence and America
America became home to the prodigious talent. After receiving his PHD in 1996, Terence joined UCLA in Los Angeles. In 1999 he was appointed a full professor, the youngest appointee for the Institution. To this day he remains with UCLA.
Terence Tao is married to Laura, an electrical engineer who is with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and they have 2 children.
Awards and achievements
In 2006, when Terence Tao was awarded the Fields Medal he was aged 31 years. It is an award that recognises outstanding mathematicians below the age of 40 and bestowed by the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). At a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award honours the Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields.[1]
The Fields Medal is regarded as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics and only awarded every 4 years. There is also no Nobel Prize for Mathematics.
In 2018, one other Australian has won the Fields Medal. He is Akshay Venkatesh. He and his family migrated to Perth from India when he was about to start schooling.
Earning his Bachelors at University of Western Australia at the age of 16 with first class honours. The youngest recipient. He too moved to America to make the best use of his talent. Another win for Australia and to Perth’s credit.
Here is an excellent article on Terence Tao and his achievements. Published in 2019 in the Princeton Alumni Weekly and authored by Mark F Bernstein it is targeted at the those in the discipline of mathematics and will be appreciative of the content.
Here another illuminating article by UCLA when he won the Fields Medal, the UCLA first by a faculty member.