Early life and academic promise
Agnijo Banerjee belongs to that rare class of young mind for whom mathematics is not a subject to be studied but a country to be explored. Born in Kolkata, India, and raised for most of his life in Scotland, he was solving problems at school-leaving level by the age of twelve — the same year a Mensa IQ test returned a score of 162, a figure often cited alongside the estimates given for Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Mathematical competitions and mentorship
His trajectory turned on a meeting. At thirteen he was paired with David Darling, a science writer and tutor of mathematics and physics, beginning a mentorship that would prove unusually productive. Banerjee competed for Britain at the highest levels of the discipline, taking part in the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad in May 2018 as one of a six-member British team.
Writing career
It is as an author, however, that he reached the public. At seventeen he co-wrote his first book, 'Weird Maths', with Darling — a guided tour through the strangest frontiers of the field, from whether aliens would enjoy our music to the future of quantum computers, packed with puzzles, paradoxes and mind-bending ideas. A single volume became a trilogy: 'Weird Maths: At the Edge of Infinity and Beyond' was followed in 2019 by 'Weirder Maths', and later by 'The Biggest Number in the World'. In the United States the first book appeared as 'Weird Math: A Teenage Genius and His Teacher Reveal the Strange Connections Between Math and Everyday Life'.
Research interests and university studies
Banerjee's fascination runs toward number theory and the mathematics that took root in India — the origins of zero, the mathematics hidden in chess, the work of Brahmagupta and Ramanujan, and the vast numbers named in ancient texts such as the Lalitavistara Sutra. He went on to read pure mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, walking the same halls as Ramanujan before him, with the stated ambition of one day solving the great unsolved problems of the field.
Achievements
- Scored 162 on a Mensa IQ test at age 12
- Competed for Britain at the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, May 2018
- Co-authored the 'Weird Maths' trilogy with David Darling
- Studied pure mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge
