| Rank | Name | IQ | Born | Known For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 1st | Marilyn vos Savant 🇺🇸 | 186 | 1946 | Penning the 'Ask Marilyn' column in Parade magazine and solving the 'Monty Hall Problem' in the proc… |
| 2 2nd | Stephen Hawking 🇬🇧 | 180 | 1942 | Hawking radiation, A Brief History of Time, Penrose–Hawking theorems, Black hole information paradox… |
| 3 3rd | Christopher Hitchens | 170 | 1949 | God Is Not Great and Hitch-22: A Memoir |
| 4 | Muhammad Ali 🇺🇸 | 150 | 1942 | Being one of the greatest boxers in human history. |
| 5 | Saul Kripke 🇺🇸 | — | 1940 | Kripke-Platek set theory. |
| 6 | Wangari Maathai 🇰🇪 | — | 1940 | Green Belt Movement |
| 7 | Martha Argerich 🇦🇷 | — | 1941 | Orchestral debut at age six, being one of the best pianists in the world. |
| 8 | Stephen Jay Gould 🇺🇸 | — | 1941 | Punctuated equilibrium Non-overlapping magisteria Spandrel Exaptation |
| 9 | Richard Dawkins 🇬🇧 | — | 1941 | Gene-centred view of evolution Concept of the meme Middle World Extended phenotype Advocacy of scie… |
| 10 | Plácido Domingo 🇪🇸 | — | 1941 | |
| 11 | Bob Dylan 🇺🇸 | — | 1941 | |
| 12 | Federico Faggin 🇺🇸 | — | 1941 | MOS silicon-gate technology and Intel 4004 |
| 13 | Daniel Barenboim 🇦🇷 | — | 1942 | Giving his first formal concert in his hometown at the age of seven |
| 14 | John Sulston 🇬🇧 | — | 1942 | Genome sequencing of Caenorhabditis elegans and humans |
| 15 | Robert Christgau 🇺🇸 | — | 1942 |
World War II and its immediate aftermath defined an era that began with total war and ended with the nuclear age, the founding of the United Nations, and the beginning of decolonization. Computing was born from the wartime need to crack codes and calculate trajectories, and the discovery of DNA's structure was just around the corner. The world was being redrawn — politically, scientifically, and morally.
Marilyn vos Savant is ranked #1 among geniuses born in the 1940s with an estimated IQ of 186, known for Penning the 'Ask Marilyn' column in Parade magazine and solving the 'Monty Hall Problem' in the process..
Our database includes 29 notable geniuses born between 1940–1949, spanning fields from science and mathematics to philosophy, literature, and the arts.
The average estimated IQ of documented geniuses born in the 1940s is 172, with the highest recorded being 186.
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