10 PEOPLE WITH THE HIGHEST IQ EVER RECORDED

10. Stephen Hawking: 160

A theoretical physicist and cosmologist born in
Oxford, England in 1942, Stephen Hawking is
the living testimony that no physical
impediment can hinder a determined mind from
unleashing its power. Despite having suffered
from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a
disease that rendered him paralyzed, he used
his exceptional IQ (160) to rise to the
occasion.
He introduced to the world the concept of
cosmology as explicated through the
consolidation of quantum mechanics and
theory of relativity. Because of his remarkable
contributions to science, Hawking has been
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
2009 — the highest that can be conferred to an
American civilian.

9. Albert Einstein: 160-190

Albert Einstein (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Of course, this list couldn’t possibly go on
without a mention of the epitome of
intelligence. With an IQ estimated between 160
and 190, Albert Einstein is the genius behind
the theory of relativity (E=mc2), which has had
tremendous impact on the world of science. He
possessed such an intriguing ability that after
is death, researchers were prompted to preserve
and dissect his brain in search for clues to his
exceptional brilliance, which to this day, has
remained a mystery.

8. Judit Polgar 170

Born in Hungary in 1976, Judit Polgar is not
only a chess master but a certified brainiac
with a recorded IQ of 170. She lived a
childhood filled with extensive chess training
from her father. The fact that she defeated
nine former and current world champions
including Garry Kasparov, Boris Spassky, and
Anatoly Karpov leaves us no room for doubt as
to why she has been dubbed as the strongest
woman chess player of all time.

7. Leonardo da Vinci. 180-190

An Italian painter born in 1452, Da Vinci is
what most would call the quintessential
enaissance man. With an alleged IQ estimated
between 180 and 190, he is widely regarded as
one of the greatest painters of all time, and
perhaps, the most diversely knowledgeable
person to have ever lived. He was an
established polymath who worked in the fields
of mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology,
botany, architecture, sculpting, painting, music,
and literature.
More than that, he is particularly famous for
is masterpieces: Mona Lisa, the Last Supper,
and the Vitruvian Man. A true visionary, he was
centuries ahead of his time with his detailed
concepts of the helicopter, calculator, tank and
the double hull, apart from his outlined theories
on solar power, hydrodynamics, and plate
tectonics.

6. Marilyn Vos Savant. 190

Born in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri, Savant is a
columnist, author, and playwright who made it
to the pinnacle of fame by getting listed five
times in the Guinness Book of World Records
as the woman with the highest IQ ever
recorded (verified at 190) from 1986 to 1989.
In 1986, she started writing Ask Marilyn, a
Sunday column in Parade magazine, wherein
she solves puzzles and answers a variety of
questions from her readers.

5. Garry Kasparov. 190

Regarded as the greatest chess player of all
time, Garry Kasparov is said to have an
outstanding IQ of 190. In May 1997, the
Azerbaijan-born chess legend played against
and got defeated by a supercomputer opponent
that can calculate 200 million moves in every
second. Nonetheless, he stunned the whole
world with his intuition and sheer ingenuity,
leaving it marveling at the amazing power of
the human mind.
In 1999, he conducted Kasparov versus the
World– the greatest and most important game
in the history of chess–where he played
against the World Team, which consisted of
more than 50,000 participants from
approximately 75 countries.

4. Kim Ung-Yong. 210

With a verified IQ of 210, Korean civil engineer
Ung-Yong had his name etched once in the
Guinness Book of World Record under its
“Highest IQ” category. While babies at 6
months old are just learning to crawl, he
already showed remarkable potential when he
started to speak and read in Korean and many
foreign languages. At 4 years old, he took an
IQ test normally given to 7-year old children
and obtained a score of more than 200. At 14
years old, he showcased his genius by solving
complex differential and integral calculus
problems live on Japanese TV.

3. Christopher Hirata. 225

The phenomenal IQ (225) of this 31-year old
Japanese-American astrophysicist lands him
third in this list. At the age of 12, Christopher
Hirata already pursued college-level courses
(calculus and physics), around the time most
of us were just in the 7th grade. At the age of
13, this whiz kid became the youngest
American to have ever won the gold medal in
the 1996 International Physics Olympiad.
At 16, he was already working with NASA on
its ambitious project to conquer Planet Mars.
After he procured his Ph.D. at the Princeton
University, he went back to California Institute
of Technology, where he is currently teaching
astrophysics.

2. Terence Tao. 220-230

Gifted with an amazing IQ estimated between
220 and 230 by the Davidson Institute, Terence
Tao makes it to this list of the people with the
highest IQ in the world. Born in Adelaide,
Australia in 1975, this prodigy first displayed
his incredible intelligence at a mere age of 2,
when he managed to solve basic arithmetic
questions on his own.
At the age of 16, he graduated with both
Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at the
Flinders University. Moreover, Tao bagged
numerous awards, such as the Salem Prize in
2000 and the Clay Research Award in 2003,
just to name a few. He has been dubbed as
“Mr. Fix It” by Charles Fefferman (a professor
of Mathematics at Princeton University),
because he has enthralled many
mathematicians such that they vie to interest
him in their problems.

1. William James Sidis. 250-300

Born in America in 1898, William James Sidis
was a wunderkind extraordinaire, gifted with an
astounding IQ estimated between 250 and 300.
This polyglot went to a grammar school when
he was only 6 years old and graduated just
within 7 months.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, at the age
of 9, he was already a Harvard student, but
since he was too young, he was advised to
take a couple of years off just to give his
personality some time to catch up and be on a
par with his intellect. At the age of 11, he
became the youngest student to have ever
enrolled at the Harvard University. He
graduated cum laude at the age of 16, and
entered Harvard Law School at 18.

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