Terence Tao is an Australian-American mathematician born in 1975, considered one of the greatest living mathematicians. A Fields Medal recipient in 2006, he has made major contributions to harmonic analysis, number theory, and partial differential equations.
Terence Tao(1975 — ?)
Terence Tao
États-Unis, Australie
7 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1975 in Adelaide, Australia, he entered university at age 14
- Earned his PhD at Princeton at age 21 in 1996
- Received the Fields Medal in 2006, the highest distinction in mathematics
- Proved with Ben Green in 2004 the Green-Tao theorem on arithmetic progressions in prime numbers
- Professor at UCLA since 1999, he has published more than 300 scientific papers
Works & Achievements
Proved with Ben Green, this theorem establishes the existence of arithmetic progressions of arbitrary length among the prime numbers. It is considered one of the greatest results in number theory of the 21st century.
A mathematical theory enabling the reconstruction of a signal from very few measurements. It revolutionized medical imaging (fast MRI), digital photography, and telecommunications.
A standard reference on nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations, used in master's and doctoral mathematics programs worldwide.
A pedagogical work drawn from his courses at UCLA, freely available online, which rigorously introduces measure theory and integration for advanced students.
The resolution of an open problem dating back to 1932 concerning sequences of ±1 values. Tao published his proof first on his blog before submitting it to an academic journal.
Anecdotes
Terence Tao taught himself to read at the age of two by watching educational cartoons. By nine, he was already attending university mathematics courses, astonishing his professors with his ability to solve advanced problems that adult students struggled to master.
Between 1986 and 1988, Tao took part in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) three years running, winning a bronze medal at age ten, a silver at eleven, and a gold at twelve. He thus became the youngest gold medalist in the competition's history, a record that stood for many years.
In 2004, Tao and his colleague Ben Green proved a result mathematicians had sought for centuries: there exist arithmetic progressions of prime numbers of arbitrarily large length. The Green-Tao theorem, which blends number theory and combinatorics, is regarded as one of the most beautiful mathematical breakthroughs of the early twenty-first century.
Terence Tao is known for his intellectual generosity and his mathematics blog "What's new
which he has run since 2007. There he publishes proofs, conjectures, and reflections accessible to everyone, and has even solved open research problems publicly thanks to contributions from readers around the world.
In 2015, Tao solved the Erdős discrepancy problem, a question more than 80 years old. He had initially thought the statement was probably false, before changing his mind and producing a complete proof in a matter of weeks, which he announced as a preview on his blog.
Primary Sources
We prove that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes. There had been little progress on this problem since the 1939 result of van der Corput that there are infinitely many arithmetic progressions of primes of length 3. Our result is different in that we do not require the primes to be consecutive.
This blog will record my own mathematical research and expository writing, and occasionally comment on interesting developments in the mathematical world. I hope it will be useful to other mathematicians and students interested in these topics.
These are expanded lecture notes from a graduate course on real analysis given at UCLA. The text aims to give a careful treatment of the foundations of measure theory and integration, accessible to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students.
Terence Tao is awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and additive number theory. His work demonstrates extraordinary breadth and depth.
Key Places
Terence Tao's hometown, where he grew up in an Australian-Hong Kong family and showed extraordinary mathematical ability from a very early age.
The university where Tao earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mathematics at just 17, before leaving for Princeton.
Tao completed his doctoral studies here under the supervision of Elias Stein, one of the foremost specialists in harmonic analysis of the 20th century.
Terence Tao has been a professor at UCLA since 1996. It is here that he conducts the bulk of his research, teaches, and supervises his doctoral students.
At the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Tao received the Fields Medal before the global mathematical community.
Typical Objects
The central tool of the modern mathematician, Tao uses it to develop his ideas, sketch out proofs, and teach his students at UCLA.
Tao writes all of his papers and books in LaTeX, the standard for mathematical typesetting, and uses computer algebra software to explore conjectures numerically.
The arXiv.org platform, where mathematicians post their papers before official publication, is Tao's daily tool for keeping up with global research and sharing his own work.
Like most mathematicians, Tao records his ideas, calculations, and rough proofs in notebooks before formalizing them into papers.
The Fields Medal awarded to Tao in 2006 in Madrid is the symbol of the highest recognition in mathematics, often compared to a Nobel Prize in the discipline.
Since 2007, Tao has run one of the most widely followed mathematics blogs in the world — a tool for open sharing and collaboration that extends his office into the digital space.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Tags
Daily Life
Morning
Terence Tao starts his day early, taking time to read the new preprints posted overnight on arXiv, the global scientific sharing platform. He replies to emails from collaborators spread across every time zone before heading to his office at UCLA.
Afternoon
The afternoon is devoted to mathematical research: Tao works alone or with doctoral students, filling whiteboards with calculations and diagrams. He also teaches advanced courses in analysis and number theory.
Evening
In the evening, Tao returns to his suburban Los Angeles home to be with his family. He sometimes publishes a new post on his blog "What's new," or continues working on a problem — sometimes well into the night when an idea has fully captured him.
Food
Tao eats simply and practically — campus meals at lunchtime, home-cooked family dinners in the evening. His Australian-Hong Kong roots are reflected in a diet that blends Western and Asian cuisine.
Clothing
Tao favors the relaxed style typical of a California campus: jeans, a t-shirt or light shirt, and sneakers. At international conferences, he wears a understated suit without any ostentation.
Housing
Tao lives in a residential neighborhood in greater Los Angeles, close to the UCLA campus. His home is that of an ordinary American professor — the normalcy of his everyday life stands in striking contrast to the extraordinary nature of his work.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Théorème de Green-Tao
2004
Compressed sensing (avec Emmanuel Candès et Justin Romberg)
2006
Nonlinear Dispersive Equations: Local and Global Analysis
2006
An Introduction to Measure Theory
2011
Démonstration de la conjecture de discordance d'Erdős
2015
