20th Century Geniuses

Brilliant minds born in the 20th century

267 Geniuses

20th Century Geniuses

Explore 267 geniuses born in the 20th Century (1900–1999), a transformative era in human knowledge and achievement.

Marnen Laibow-Koser
b. 1970 · United States
Being a child prodigy, proficient with multiple musical instruments and programming techniques.
IQ 268
Read Article · Profile
Ainan Celeste Cawley
b. 1999 · SG
Being a child prodigy with estimated IQ of 250.
IQ 250
Read Article · Profile
Chris Hirata
b. 1982 · United States
Being the youngest U.S. citizen to receive an International Physics Olympiad gold medal. Starting wo
IQ 225
Read Article · Profile
Terence Chi-Shen Tao
b. 1975 · Australia
When he was two years old, he was able to perform simple arithmetic. By the time he was nine, he was
IQ 220
Read Article · Profile
Kim Ung-yong
b. 1962 · South Korea
Having one of the biggest IQs in the world.
IQ 210
Read Article · Profile
Edith Stern
b. 1952 · United States
Holding over 100 US patents and being awarded the ASME Kate Gleason Award.
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Michael Grost
b. 1954 · United States
Starting university at the tender age of 10, the maths prodigy is now a computer scientist, accordin
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Michael Kearney
b. 1984 · United States
Child prodigy, youngest person to ever graduate from college (age 10)
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Nadia Camukova
b. 1976 · Russia
It's been previously reported Camukova has the highest IQ in the world, and the talented linguist ha
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Leopold and Loeb
1905–1971 · United States
Being murderer obsessed with committing the “perfect crime.” Their murder of a 14 years old was the
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Sho Yano
b. 1990 · United States
The youngest student at the University of Chicago to receive an MD, Yano had one degree under his be
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Vitalik Buterin
b. 1994 · Russia
Ethereum founder, Bitcoin Magazine
IQ 200
Read Article · Profile
Evangelos Katsioulis
b. 1976 · Greece
<br> Highest adult IQ in the world (2012): IQ 198, sd 15 or IQ 205, sd 16 <br>
IQ 198
Read Article · Profile
Walter O'Brien (Obrien)
b. 1975 · Ireland
Inspiration of the television series Scorpion
IQ 197
Read Article · Profile
Ramón Campayo
b. 1964 · Spain
Speed-Memory program, World Memory Records
IQ 194
Read Article · Profile
Mislav Predavec
b. 1967 · Croatia
His remarcable IQ test scores and considered therefore as one of the smartest people alive.
IQ 192
Read Article · Profile
Richard G. Rosner
b. 1960 · United States
IQ 192
Read Article · Profile
Enrico Fermi
1901–1954 · Italy
Demonstrating first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction Fermi–Dirac statistics Fermi's golden ru
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Garry Kasparov
b. 1963 · AZ
Being the top chess player from 1984 until 2005
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
John von Neumann
1903–1957 · Hungary
Abelian von Neumann algebra Affiliated operator Amenable group Arithmetic logic unit Artificial visc
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Linus Pauling
1901–1994 · United States
Alpha sheet • Ancestral sequence reconstruction • Backbonding • Beta sheet • Bond order
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Paul Dirac
1902–1984 · England
Sharing the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger "for the discovery of new productive
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Philip Emeagwali
b. 1954 · NG
being the "Bill Gates of Africa"
IQ 190
Read Article · Profile
Marilyn vos Savant
b. 1946 · United States
Penning the 'Ask Marilyn' column in Parade magazine and solving the 'Monty Hall Problem' in the proc
IQ 186
Read Article · Profile
Adragon Eastwood De Mello
b. 1976 · United States
Graduating from college at the age of 11.
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Alan Turing
1912–1954 · England
Cryptanalysis of the Enigma • Turing's proof • Turing machine • Turing test • Unorganised machine •
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Norman Dolloff
b. 1928
IQ 185
Read Article · Profile
Ettore Majorana
1906–1938 · Italy
The Italian theoretical physicist was an expert in electrically neutral subatomic particles created
IQ 183
Read Article · Profile
Nikola Poljak
b. 1982
IQ 183
Read Article · Profile
Claude Shannon
1916–2001 · United States
Information theory
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Henry Bray
b. 1916
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
John H. Sununu
b. 1939 · United States
Being White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
John Tukey
1915–2000 · United States
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and box plot
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
John Bardeen
1908–1991 · United States
Transistor BCS theory Superconductivity
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
John Forbes Nash Jr.
1928–2015 · United States
Nash equilibrium • Nash embedding theorem • Nash functions • Nash–Moser theorem • Hilbert's nineteen
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Stephen Hawking
1942–2018 · United Kingdom
Hawking radiation, A Brief History of Time, Penrose–Hawking theorems, Black hole information paradox
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Werner Heisenberg
1901–1976 · Germany
The creation of quantum mechanics
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Wernher von Braun
1912–1977 · Germany
Chief architect of the Apollo Saturn V rocket; development of the V-2 rocket
IQ 180
Read Article · Profile
Frederick Sanger
1918–2013 · United Kingdom
Determining the amino acid sequence of insulin • Sanger sequencing • Sanger Centre
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Salvador Dalí
1904–1989 · Spain
Painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, writing, film, jewelry
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
William Shockley
1910–1989 · United States
Point-contact transistor and GJT • Diffused-base transistor • Heterojunction bipolar transistor • Th
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Wolfgang Pauli
1900–1958 · Austria
Pauli exclusion principle
IQ 175
Read Article · Profile
Christopher Langan
b. 1952 · United States
Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe
IQ 174
Read Article · Profile
Ivan Ivec
b. 1976 · Croatia
IQ 174
Read Article · Profile
Francis Crick
1916–2004 · England
DNA structure Central Dogma Consciousness Adaptor hypothesis
IQ 173
Read Article · Profile
Christopher Hitchens
1949–2011 · England
God Is Not Great and Hitch-22: A Memoir
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Howard Robard Hughes
1905–1976 · United States
Hughes Aircraft Company
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Ilya Prigogine
1917–2003 · Russia
Dissipative structures Brusselator
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Isaac Asimov
1920–1992 · United States
The Foundation series
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Jacob Barnett
b. 1998 · United States
Becoming a doctorate student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada at 18 years old.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Judit Polgár
b. 1976 · Hungary
Being the strongest female chess player of all time.
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Kurt Gödel
1906–1978 · Czech Republic
Gödel numbering
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Marion Tinsley
1927–1995 · United States
Never losing a world championship match
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Robert M. Pirsig
1928–2017 · United States
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991)
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
1910–1995 · India
Chandrasekhar limit • Chandrasekhar number • Chandrasekhar friction • Chandrasekhar–Kendall function
IQ 170
Read Article · Profile
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
1934–2012 · United States
IQ 168
Read Article · Profile
Manahel Thabet
b. 1981 · YE
the youngest person to receive a financial engineering Ph.D. magna cum laude. In 2012 she came up wi
IQ 168
Read Article · Profile
Charles H. Townes
1915–2015 · United States
Lasers
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Karl Popper
1902–1994 · Australia
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Theodore Maiman
1927–2007 · United States
Inventing the laser
IQ 165
Read Article · Profile
Ayn Rand
1905–1982 · Russia
The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Bill Gates
b. 1955 · United States
Co-founding Microsoft
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Acharya S
1960–2015 · United States
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999) • Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israel
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Erich Fromm
1900–1980 · Germany
Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics and Escape from Freedom
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Marvin Minsky
1927–2016 · United States
Artificial intelligence • Confocal microscope • Useless machine • Triadex Muse • Perceptrons • The
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Paul Allen
1953–2018 · United States
Co-founder of Microsoft
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Steve Jobs
1955–2011 · United States
Pioneer of the personal computer revolution with Steve Wozniak as Apple founders. Co-creator of the
IQ 160
Read Article · Profile
Albert Camus
1913–1960
The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Elon Musk
b. 1971 · South Africa
Elon Musk is known for founding Tesla Motors and SpaceX, which launched a landmark commercial spacec
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905–1980 · France
Being and Nothingness and Existentialism Is a Humanism
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
John F. Kennedy
1917–1963 · United States
Being the 35th president of the United States
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Milton Friedman
1912–2006 · United States
For explaining the role of money supply in economic and inflation fluctuations
IQ 155
Read Article · Profile
Muhammad Ali
1942–2016 · United States
Being one of the greatest boxers in human history.
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Stanley Kubrick
1928–1999 · United States
Spartacus • The Shining • 2001: A Space Odyssey • A Clockwork Orange
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Truman Capote
1924–1984 · United States
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966)
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Nolan Gould
b. 1998 · United States
The Modern Family
IQ 150
Read Article · Profile
Akrit Jaswal
b. 1993 · India
Performing a surgery on his neighbour at the age of seven.
IQ 146
Read Article · Profile
Alan Watts
1915–1973 · United Kingdom
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Warren Buffett
b. 1930 · United States
Leadership of Berkshire Hathaway with Charlie Munger
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Willem Klein
1912–1986 · Netherlands
Doing mathematical calculations in his head
IQ 145
Read Article · Profile
Frank Drake
b. 1930 · United States
SETI • Drake equation
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Hannah Arendt
1906–1975 · Germany
The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition and Eichmann in Jerusalem.
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Martin Luther King Jr.
1929–1968 · United States
Civil rights movement, Peace movement
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Sylvia Plath
1932–1963 · United States
The Bell Jar and Ariel
IQ 140
Read Article · Profile
Carl Sagan
1934–1996 · United States
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, The Dragons of Eden, Th
IQ 130
Read Article · Profile
Walt Disney
1901–1966 · United States
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Old Mill and Pinocchio
IQ 123
Read Article · Profile
Kim Peek
1951–2009 · United States
Being able to memorize the content of at least 12,000 books.
IQ 87
Read Article · Profile
Leslie Lemke
b. 1952 · United States
Being able to play any musical piece on a piano after hearing it once.
IQ 58
Read Article · Profile
Stephen Wiltshire
b. 1974 · United Kingdom
His ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once
IQ 52
Read Article · Profile
Aage Niels Bohr
1922–2009 · Denmark
Explained the structure of the atomic nucleus, unifying the liquid-drop and shell models to produce
Read Article · Profile
Abdus Salam
1926–1996 · Pakistan
An architect of the second great unification in physics, uniting the electromagnetic force with the
Read Article · Profile
Akshay Venkatesh
b. 1981 · India
Mathematical Work, Former Child Prodigy
Read Article · Profile
Alan Guth
b. 1947 · United States
Cosmic inflation • Borde–Guth–Vilenkin theorem • Inflaton
Read Article · Profile
Andrew Wiles
b. 1953 · United Kingdom
Proving Fermat's Last Theorem
Read Article · Profile
Anish Kumar Giri
b. 1994 · Russia
Achieving the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14 years.
Read Article · Profile
Arfa Karim
1995–2012 · Pakistan
World's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, 2004–2006
Read Article · Profile
Barbara McClintock
1902–1992 · United States
Work in genetic structure of maize
Read Article · Profile
Bobby Fischer
1943–2008 · United States
Being the World Chess Champion
Read Article · Profile
Bu Xiangzhi
b. 1985 · China
Becoming a chess grandmaster in 1999
Read Article · Profile
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
1904–1990 · United States
Operant conditioning • Radical behaviorism • Behavior analysis • Verbal behavior
Read Article · Profile
Carl David Anderson
1905–1991 · United States
Discovery of the positron and discovery of the muon
Read Article · Profile
Carl Woese
1928–2012 · United States
Discovery of Archaea
Read Article · Profile
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
1900–1979 · United States
Explanation of stellar spectra and composition of the Sun, more than 3,000,000 observations of varia
Read Article · Profile
Yang Chen-Ning
b. 1922 · China
Yang–Mills theory • Gauge theory • Yang–Mills–Higgs equations
Read Article · Profile
Claudio Arrau
1903–1991 · CL
Could read notes before letters
Read Article · Profile
Craig Venter
b. 1946 · United States
Metagenomics • Synthetic genomics • Shotgun approach to genome sequencing
Read Article · Profile
Daniel Barenboim
b. 1942 · Argentina
Giving his first formal concert in his hometown at the age of seven
Read Article · Profile
Daniil Dubov
b. 1996 · Russia
Being a chess Grandmaster at the age of 14.
Read Article · Profile
Dariusz Świercz
b. 1994 · United States
Achieving the rank of Grandmaster at 14.
Read Article · Profile
Donald Knuth
b. 1938 · United States
The Art of Computer Programming • TeX • METAFONT • Computer Modern
Read Article · Profile
Edmund Thomas Clint
1976–1983 · India
Having drawn over 25,000 paintings
Read Article · Profile
Edward Witten
b. 1951 · United States
M-theory • Seiberg–Witten theory • Seiberg-Witten map • Seiberg–Witten invariants • Wess–Zumino–Witt
Read Article · Profile
Ernest Lawrence
1901–1958 · United States
Invention of the cyclotronManhattan Project
Read Article · Profile
Ernest Walton
1903–1995 · United Kingdom
The first disintegration of an atomic nucleus by artificially accelerated protons ("splitting the at
Read Article · Profile
Erwin Chargaff
1905–2002 · Hungary
Chargaff's rules
Read Article · Profile
Étienne Bacrot
b. 1983 · France
Becoming a Grandmaster in March 1997 at the age of 14 years and 2 months
Read Article · Profile
Evgeny Kissin
b. 1971 · Russia
Entered music school at age six
Read Article · Profile
Fabiano Caruana
b. 1992 · Italy
Becoming a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days.
Read Article · Profile
Frances Oldham Kelsey
1914–2015 · Canada
Preventing thalidomide from being marketed in the United States
Read Article · Profile
Fred Hoyle
1915–2001 · United Kingdom
Coining the phrase 'Big Bang'Stellar nucleosynthesis theoryHoyle's fallacyB2FH paperHoyle-Narlikar t
Read Article · Profile
Eugene Merle Shoemaker
1928–1997 · United States
Planetary science • Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9
Read Article · Profile
George Wald
1906–1997 · United States
Pigments in the retina
Read Article · Profile
Gian Carlo Menotti
1911–2007 · Italy
Composed first opera at age eleven
Read Article · Profile
Giulio Natta
1903–1979 · Italy
Ziegler–Natta catalyst, Natta projection
Read Article · Profile
Glenn Gould
1932–1982 · Canada
Attending The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) at age 10
Read Article · Profile
Glenn T. Seaborg
1912–1999 · United States
His contributions to the synthesis, discovery, and investigation of ten transuranium elements
Read Article · Profile
Grace Hopper
1906–1992 · United States
Pioneer of electronic computers: invented the first compiler; was the principal architect of COBOL,
Read Article · Profile
Grigori Perelman
b. 1966 · Russia
Riemannian geometry • Geometric topology • Proof of the soul conjecture • Proof of the Poincaré conj
Read Article · Profile
György Cziffra
1921–1994 · Hungary
Entered the Franz Liszt Academy at age nine, after some four years performing in a traveling circus
Read Article · Profile
Hou Yifan
b. 1994 · China
Being the youngest female player to qualify for the title of grandmaster (at the age of 14 years 6 m
Read Article · Profile
Koneru Humpy
b. 1987 · India
Read Article · Profile
Illya Nyzhnyk
b. 1996 · Ukraine
Achieving the title of grandmaster at the age of 2015.
Read Article · Profile
Jack Horner (paleontologist)
b. 1946 · United States
Popularizer of science: discovered that dinosaurs cared for their young and some nested in colonies.
Read Article · Profile
Jacques Cousteau
1910–1997 · France
The Silent World
Read Article · Profile
James Lovelock
b. 1919 · United Kingdom
Electron capture detector and Gaia hypothesis
Read Article · Profile
Jane Goodall
b. 1934 · England
Study of chimpanzees, conservation, animal welfare
Read Article · Profile
Jascha Heifetz
1901–1987 · Russia
Being one of the greatest violin players of the 20th century
Read Article · Profile
Jerry Newport
b. 1948 · United States
Being a public speaker with Asperger syndrome
Read Article · Profile
John Eccles (neurophysiologist)
1903–1997 · Australia
Work on the synapseInteractionism
Read Article · Profile
John Sulston
1942–2018 · United Kingdom
Genome sequencing of Caenorhabditis elegans and humans
Read Article · Profile
Jorge Cori
b. 1995 · PE
Achieving the title of Grandmaster at 14.
Read Article · Profile
Kishan Shrikanth
b. 1996 · India
Read Article · Profile
Kit Armstrong
b. 1992 · United States
Concerto debut at eight; Morton Gould Young Composer Award for five consecutive years
Read Article · Profile
Lang Lang
b. 1982 · China
Entering the Beijing Conservatory at age eight
Read Article · Profile
Larry Page
b. 1973 · United States
Co-founding Google Co-founding Alphabet Inc. Co-creator PageRank
Read Article · Profile
Leslie Howard (musician)
b. 1948 · Australia
Perfect pitch, and ability to recall anything by ear, first cited in The Herald, Melbourne, when he
Read Article · Profile
Lev Landau
1908–1968 · AZ
Quantum mechanical theory of diamagnetism • Theory of superfluidity • Theory of second-order phase t
Read Article · Profile
Linda B. Buck
b. 1947 · United States
Olfactory receptors
Read Article · Profile
Luis Walter Alvarez
1911–1988 · United States
Design of a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber
Read Article · Profile
Magnus Carlsen
b. 1990 · Norway
Being the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion.
Read Article · Profile
Marguerite Perey
1909–1975 · France
Francium discovery
Read Article · Profile
Martha Argerich
b. 1941 · Argentina
Orchestral debut at age six, being one of the best pianists in the world.
Read Article · Profile
Martin Gardner
1914–2010 · United States
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science; "Mathematical Games" (Scientific American column); The An
Read Article · Profile
Maurice Hilleman
1919–2005 · United States
Developing several important vaccines
Read Article · Profile
Maurice Wilkins
1916–2004 · New Zealand
X-ray diffraction, DNA
Read Article · Profile
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
b. 1990 · France
Read Article · Profile
Michio Kaku
b. 1947 · United States
String field theory • Physics of the Impossible • Physics of the Future • The Future of the Mind
Read Article · Profile
Minou Drouet
b. 1947 · France
Arbre, mon ami
Read Article · Profile
Neil deGrasse Tyson
b. 1958 · United States
PBS show NOVA
Read Article · Profile
Nino Rota
1911–1979 · Italy
Composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of
Read Article · Profile
Noam Chomsky
b. 1928 · United States
Writing in excess of 100 books and was named the “world’s top public intellectual” in a poll conduct
Read Article · Profile
Parimarjan Negi
b. 1993 · India
Being the seventh youngest grandmaster in history.
Read Article · Profile
Peter Leko
b. 1979 · Hungary
Being the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994
Read Article · Profile
Priyanshi Somani
b. 1998 · India
Mental calculator
Read Article · Profile
Rachel Carson
1907–1964 · United States
Under the Sea Wind (1941) • The Sea Around Us (1951) • The Edge of the Sea (1955) • Silent Spring (1
Read Article · Profile
Ray Robson
b. 1994 · United States
Read Article · Profile
R. J. Hollingdale
1930–2001 · United Kingdom
Translator of German Literature
Read Article · Profile
Richard Feynman
1918–1988 · United States
Manhattan Project Acoustic
Read Article · Profile
Richárd Rapport
b. 1996 · Hungary
Hungarian Chess Champion in 2017.
Read Article · Profile
Roger Wolcott Sperry
1913–1994 · United States
Split-brain research and Chemoaffinity hypothesis
Read Article · Profile
Rosalind Franklin
1920–1958 · United Kingdom
Structure of DNA • Fine structure of coal and graphite • Virus structures
Read Article · Profile
Ruslan Ponomariov
b. 1983 · Ukraine
Being the FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004
Read Article · Profile
Ruth Lawrence
b. 1971 · United Kingdom
Lawrence–Krammer representation
Read Article · Profile
Samuel Barber
1910–1981 · United States
Attempted an opera at age ten; attended the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen
Read Article · Profile
Samuel Reshevsky
1911–1992 · Poland
Eight-time winner of the US Chess Championship
Read Article · Profile
Saul Kripke
b. 1940 · United States
Kripke-Platek set theory.
Read Article · Profile
Scott Aaronson
b. 1981 · United States
Quantum Turing machine with postselection • Algebrization • Boson sampling
Read Article · Profile
Sergey Karjakin
b. 1990 · Russia
Becoming a grandmaster at the age of 12.
Read Article · Profile
Shahriar Afshar
b. 1971 · Iran
Afshar experiment, KOR-fx, SoundKix, and acousto-haptics
Read Article · Profile
Shakuntala Devi
1929–2013 · India
Read Article · Profile
Sheila Sri Prakash
b. 1955 · India
Founding the Shilpa Architects
Read Article · Profile
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son
b. 1990 · VN
Becoming a Grandmaster at the age of 11 years.
Read Article · Profile
Stephanie Kwolek
1923–2014 · United States
Kevlar
Read Article · Profile
Stephen Jay Gould
1941–2002 · United States
Punctuated equilibrium Non-overlapping magisteria Spandrel Exaptation
Read Article · Profile
Steven Pinker
b. 1954 · Canada
The Language Instinct (1994) • How the Mind Works (1997) • The Blank Slate (2002) • The Better Angel
Read Article · Profile
Susumu Tonegawa
b. 1939 · Japan
Antibody diversity, E-boxV(D) and J recombination
Read Article · Profile
Teimour Radjabov
b. 1987 · AZ
Starting playing chess at the age of 3
Read Article · Profile
Wei Yi
b. 1999 · China
The fifth-youngest grandmaster in history
Read Article · Profile
Wesley So
b. 1993 · United States
The fifth-highest-rated player in history.in March of 2017
Read Article · Profile
Yu Yangyi
b. 1994 · China
Chinese chess grandmaster
Read Article · Profile
Yehudi Menuhin
1916–1999 · United States
Playing the Soil Stradivarius,
Read Article · Profile
Yeshayahu Leibowitz
1903–1994 · Israel
Encyclopaedia Hebraica
Read Article · Profile
Tu Youyou
b. 1930 · China
Discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin
Read Article · Profile
Yuriy Kuzubov
b. 1990 · Ukraine
Chess Grandmaster
Read Article · Profile
Ariel Lanyi
b. 1997 · Israel
Music Prodigy Pianist
Read Article · Profile
Flo and Kay Lyman
b. 1956 · United States
Their Memory • World's only female autistic savant twins
Read Article · Profile
Daniel Tammet
b. 1979 · England
Born on a Blue Day (2006)
Read Article · Profile
Yaakov Ziv
1931–2023 · Israel
LZ77, LZ78
Read Article · Profile
Akiane Kramarik
b. 1994 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Santiago Gonzalez
b. 1997 · United States
Graduating from university at 17.
Read Article · Profile
Jason Padgett
b. 1970 · United States
Being a mathematical savant & Artist
Read Article · Profile
Matt Savage
b. 1992 · United States
Matt Savage Groove Experiment – Splash Variations (2018)
Read Article · Profile
Jack Andraka
b. 1997 · United States
His method of detecting cancer at early stages
Read Article · Profile
Shree Bose
b. 1994 · United States
Cofounding Piper, a STEM education company creating engineering kits for children.
Read Article · Profile
Marian Bechtel
b. 1997 · United States
Creating a landmine detector
Read Article · Profile
Colin Carlson
b. 1995 · United States
Winning the Harry S. Truman Scholarship at 14
Read Article · Profile
Nick D'Aloisio
b. 1995 · United Kingdom
Summly
Read Article · Profile
Kelvin Doe
b. 1996 · SL
Teaching himself engineering at the age of 12 and building his own radio station in Sierra Leone
Read Article · Profile
Saheela Ibraheem
b. 1996 · United States
Enrolling into Harvard at the age of 15.
Read Article · Profile
Talia Leman
b. 1995 · United States
Creating the RandomKid organization
Read Article · Profile
Dalumuzi Mhlanga
b. 1995 · ZW
Founder & CEO of Notto Inc
Read Article · Profile
Raghav Sood
b. 1997 · India
Read Article · Profile
Adora Svitak
b. 1997 · United States
Writing stories since the age of 6
Read Article · Profile
Brittany Wenger
b. 1994 · United States
Winning the first-place winner of the Google Science Fair in 2012
Read Article · Profile
Taylor Wilson
b. 1994 · United States
Achieving nuclear fusion using an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device
Read Article · Profile
Esther Lederberg
1922–2006 · United States
Lambda phage, specialized transduction, replica plating, fertility factor F, Plasmid Reference Cente
Read Article · Profile
Elias James Corey
b. 1928 · United States
Retrosynthetic analysis
Read Article · Profile
Banksy
b. 1974 · United Kingdom
Ozone's Angel
Read Article · Profile
Jackie Chan
b. 1954 · HK
Read Article · Profile
Robert Christgau
b. 1942 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Coen brothers
b. 1954 · United States
Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother,
Read Article · Profile
Natalie Zemon Davis
b. 1928 · United States
Trickster Travels (2006)
Read Article · Profile
Richard Dawkins
b. 1941 · United Kingdom
Gene-centred view of evolution Concept of the meme Middle World Extended phenotype Advocacy of scie
Read Article · Profile
Plácido Domingo
b. 1941 · Spain
Read Article · Profile
Bob Dylan
b. 1941 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Ashton Eaton
b. 1988 · United States
Holding the world record in the indoor heptathlon
Read Article · Profile
Federico Faggin
b. 1941 · United States
MOS silicon-gate technology and Intel 4004
Read Article · Profile
Shawn Fanning
b. 1980 · United States
Co-founder and lead software engineer of Napster
Read Article · Profile
Stephen Fry
b. 1957 · United Kingdom
A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993)
Read Article · Profile
Wayne Gretzky
b. 1961 · Canada
Read Article · Profile
14th Dalai Lama
b. 1935 · China
Religious leader of Tibet
Read Article · Profile
GZA
b. 1966 · United States
Being the founding member of Wu-Tang Clan
Read Article · Profile
Tony Hawk
b. 1968 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Shirley Ann Jackson
b. 1946 · United States
Being the first African-American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of
Read Article · Profile
Bill James
b. 1949 · United States
Sabermetrics
Read Article · Profile
Michael Jordan
b. 1963 · United States
Being one of the top players in NBA's history
Read Article · Profile
Tawakkol Karman
b. 1979 · YE
Winning the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
Read Article · Profile
Stan Lee
1922–2018 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Yo Yo Ma
b. 1955 · United States
Read Article · Profile
Cormac McCarthy
b. 1933 · United States
Suttree (1979) • Blood Meridian (1985) • All the Pretty Horses (1992) • No Country for Old Men (2005
Read Article · Profile
Ian McKellen
b. 1939 · United Kingdom
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies
Read Article · Profile
Barack Obama
b. 1961 · United States
Being in the 44th president of the United State
Read Article · Profile
Conan O'Brien
b. 1963 · United States
Saturday Night Live (writer, 1987–1991) • The Simpsons(writer, producer, 1991–1993) • Late Night wit
Read Article · Profile
Amartya Sen
b. 1933 · India
Read Article · Profile
Tom Stoppard
b. 1937 · United Kingdom
Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, Tra
Read Article · Profile
Aung San Suu Kyi
b. 1945 · Myanmar
Activism
Read Article · Profile
McCoy Tyner
1938–2020 · United States
Being a five-time Grammy winner.
Read Article · Profile
Oprah Winfrey
b. 1954 · United States
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Read Article · Profile
Nate Silver
b. 1978 · United States
PECOTA, FiveThirtyEight
Read Article · Profile
Maya Plisetskaya
1925–2015 · Russia
Mistress of the Copper Mountain in The Stone Flower (1959); Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (1963); Ma
Read Article · Profile
Peter Thiel
b. 1967 · Germany
Founding PayPal
Read Article · Profile
Anna Wintour
b. 1949 · United Kingdom
Read Article · Profile
Mark Zuckerberg
b. 1984 · United States
Co-founding and leading Facebook, Inc.
Read Article · Profile
Jim Carollo
b. 1958 · United States
Becoming a math genius after a car crash
Read Article · Profile
Daniel Afedzi Akyeampong
1938–2015 · GH
Read Article · Profile
Nadia Comaneci
b. 1961 · Romania
Read Article · Profile
Sam Altman
b. 1985 · United States
am Altman is best known for his work in the field of artificial intelligence • He is the Preside
Read Article · Profile
Lee Kuan Yew
1923–2015
Read Article · Profile
Shirin Ebadi
b. 1947 · Iran
Defenders of Human Rights Center
Read Article · Profile
Ralph Bunche
1904–1971 · United States
Mediation in Israel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Read Article · Profile
Toni Morrison
1931–2019 · United States
The Bluest Eye (1970)Sula (1973)Song of Solomon (1977)Tar Baby (1981)Beloved (1987)
Read Article · Profile
Elie Wiesel
1928–2016 · Romania
Night (1960)
Read Article · Profile
Kazuo Ishiguro
b. 1954 · Japan
An Artist of the Floating WorldThe Remains of the DayWhen We Were OrphansNever Let Me GoKlara and th
Read Article · Profile
Alice Munro
b. 1931 · Canada
Read Article · Profile
Wangari Maathai
1940–2011 · KE
Green Belt Movement
Read Article · Profile
Octavio Paz
1914–1998 · Mexico
Read Article · Profile
J. Robert Oppenheimer
1904–1967 · United States
Atomic bomb Oppenheimer–Snyder model Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equation Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff
Read Article · Profile

Explore More Lists

Geniuses Who Died Young (43)Female Geniuses Throughout History (92)Nobel Prize-Winning Geniuses (88)Ancient Geniuses (74)Renaissance Geniuses (95)Living Geniuses Today (207)Geniuses with the Highest IQ Scores (16)Polymath Geniuses (151)

Frequently Asked Questions

How many geniuses were born in the 20th Century?

Geniuses.Club features 267 geniuses born during the 20th Century.

Who was the greatest genius of the 20th Century?

The 20th Century produced many extraordinary minds. Explore the full list to discover who made the greatest impact.

What major fields emerged in the 20th Century?

The 20th Century saw transformative developments across science, mathematics, art, philosophy, and technology.

Discover history's greatest minds — biographies, IQ scores, quotes, and more.

Explore All 1,100+ Geniuses →
01 · VS

Trending Comparisons

Ludwig Van BeethovenVSMichelangeloBeethoven vs MichelangeloWho ranks higher? →Mark TwainVSNikola TeslaTwain vs TeslaWho ranks higher? →Galileo GalileiVSMark TwainGalilei vs TwainWho ranks higher? →Ada LovelaceVSJohann Sebastian BachLovelace vs BachWho ranks higher? →Leo TolstoyVSLudwig Van BeethovenTolstoy vs BeethovenWho ranks higher? →Elon MuskVSWilliam James SidisMusk vs SidisWho ranks higher? →
02 · TOP 100

Top IQ Rankings

Highest IQ in HistoryTop 100→Greatest PhysicistsTop 38→Greatest MathematiciansTop 29→
03 · PRODIGIES

Child prodigies

Kim Ung-yongKim Ung-yongTested IQ 210 — Guinness Record Holder, NASA Engineer at 8, PhD…Shakuntala DeviShakuntala DeviMultiplied two 13-digit numbers in her head in 28 secondsStephen WiltshireStephen WiltshireAutistic Savant Drawing Entire Cities from Memory — MBE from…Michael KearneyMichael KearneyBachelor's at 10 Years, 4 Months — Youngest U.S. College…
Child prodigies →
04 · WORLD

Explore geniuses by country

🇺🇸United States🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England🇩🇪Germany🇫🇷France🇮🇹Italy🇷🇺Russia🇬🇷Greece🇮🇳India🇨🇳China🇯🇵Japan🇮🇱Israel🇪🇬EgyptAll countries →

Play & come back tomorrow

Daily Genius Challenge · Guess the genius
19th-century mathematician who wrote the first algorithm for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.
Tap your answer ↓
Which Genius Are You? Free IQ Test