Humanity has been engaged in the endeavor to quantify intelligence for over a hundred years now. The first strides in this field came courtesy of Englishman Sir Francis Galton in the late 1800s when he became one of the first people to study intelligence.
Galton’s work served as the backbone for later iterations of intelligence tests that would culminate in the invention of the modern-day IQ test in 1904 by Alfred Binet. Although IQ tests have historically been a subject of great controversy, a lot of its brightest alumni have made great strides for the betterment of mankind in a number of fields such as mathematics and science.
The following are some of the highest recorded IQ scores that have ever been measured in people since IQ tests were invented; from the usual suspects like scientists to surprise entrants such as exotic dancers, these are the highest IQs throughout history.
1. Adragon De Mello: IQ 400
Adragon De Mello is a former child prodigy and world record holder from America. He is famous for graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a degree in computational mathematics in 1988, aged 11.
His IQ is reported to be an astonishing 400, although this is a contentious issue as these results were ascertained from a test administered by his father. This man is notorious for forcibly pushing the life of a child genius upon his son.
2. Michael Kearney: IQ 200
Michael Kearney is a college teaching assistant famous for setting several world records as the youngest graduate in several fields. He is also renowned for his attempts to break into the entertainment industry as a game show host, an endeavor that made him a millionaire. Kearney possesses an exceptionally high IQ, measuring at 200, one of the highest recorded on Earth.
3. Sho Yano: IQ 200
Sho Yano is a former child prodigy turned adult doctor who attended Loyola University at age nine and graduated summa cum laude three years later with an IQ of 200. At 13, Yano enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, one of the premier medical schools in America. Yano went on to graduate at 21 from Pritzker and is now a pediatric neurologist and medical geneticist.
4. Nathan Leopold: IQ 200
Nathan Leopold is a genius with a deviant nature who boasts an IQ of 200. He is said to have spoken nine languages by 18, but his academic trajectory was ruined by his attempts at committing the perfect crime. In 1924, Leopold was arrested on charges of murder, a crime that saw him spend 33 years in jail.
5. Marilyn vos Savant: IQ 228
Marilyn Vos Savant is an intellectual and magazine columnist. She has the prestigious honor of having the highest recorded intelligence quotient in the Guinness Book of Records from 1985 to 1989, a distinction she received just before the category was retired in 1990. The record was ascertained from an IQ test she took at the age of 10, which yielded a score of 228.
6. Ainan Cawley: IQ 263
Ainan Cawley is a child prodigy from Malaysia. He rose to fame for his impressive intellectual prowess at a young age, including passing the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in chemistry at the age of seven and studying chemistry at the tertiary level in Singapore Polytechnic at the age of eight. He possesses an extremely high IQ of 263.
7. Christopher Langan: IQ 174-210
Christopher Langan is an unassuming American horse rancher and autodidact with one of the world’s highest recorded Intelligence Quotients (IQ) ranging from 195 to 210. Langan survived a childhood of abject poverty and tragedy to eventually be recognized as the smartest man in the world by journalists in 1999.
8. Michael Grost: IQ 200
Michael Grost is a former child prodigy who made his foray into intellectual stardom by beginning a tertiary education in college at 10. He would go on to graduate from Michigan State University at the age of 15 and earn a doctorate degree in mathematics when he was 23. His IQ sits at an estimated 200 points.
9. Kim Ung – Yong: IQ 200 – 210
Kim Ung-Yong is a South Korean civil engineer who gained notoriety in his youth as one of, if not the smartest, child prodigies in recorded history. Yong has one of the highest recorded IQs, having scored 210 on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. At the age of three, Yong could solve calculus problems and authored a 247-page book.
10. Ramarni Wilfred: IQ 162
Known in the press as Britain’s smartest schoolboy, Ramarni Wilfred is a 21-year-old who rose to fame after scoring higher than Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein in an IQ test. Ramarni scored 162; Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Einstein all have IQs of 160.
11. Nadia Camukova: IQ 200
A professor at Bahcesehir University in Turkey, Nadia Camukova possesses one of the highest IQs in the world, at 200. Nadia was born to a lawyer father and a neurosurgeon mother in Moscow in 1976. The Brain Research Institute in Moscow determined her IQ score, indicating the extent of her intellectual prowess.
12. Richard “Rick” Rosner: IQ 140-250
Over the years, he has submitted himself to over 30 IQ tests and received the highest Intelligence Quotient on more than 20 of them. Rick Rosner can proudly assert his claim of being one of the smartest men on Earth. A television personality and former stripper, Rick maintains his smarts with a daily intake of Omega 3 fish oil and Metformin supplements.
13. Marnen Laibow-Koser: IQ 268
Marnen Laibow-Koser is a reclusive genius famous for passing a childhood test that gave him a projected IQ of 268. Now a music composer and web developer operating out of Somerville, Massachusetts, his only interaction with the public is social media pages that list him as a graduate student at the New England Conservatory.
14. Dylan Jones: IQ 200
Dylan Jones is your typical high-IQ genius. Having graduated from the Colorado School of Mines at 16 with a degree in math and computer science and a minor in bioengineering and life sciences. With an IQ of 200, Jones spends most of his spare time familiarizing himself with new languages.
15. Edith Stern: IQ 203
Some geniuses are born smart, while others are molded into intellectuals by overzealous parents. Edith Stern is the perfect example of the latter. The day Edith was born, her father arranged a press conference to announce his intentions of turning his daughter into the perfect being. His efforts seemingly paid off, as Edith enrolled in college by age 12 with an IQ of 203.
16. Marie Curie: IQ 180-200
Marie Curie is a pioneering figure famous for her work in radioactivity (a term she herself coined). Her work in this field led to the invention of X-ray technology and radiology. She has an IQ of between 180 and 200 and not only shattered the glass ceiling but is also the first person in history to win the Nobel Prize twice.
17. Terence Tao: IQ 211-230
Terence Tao is the 21st-century’s premier mathematician, with an IQ between 211 and 230. Often referred to as “the Mozart of Math,” Tao is a former child prodigy who now teaches mathematics at UCLA. Proving that being smart does have its benefits, Tao once earned $3 million in cash for winning the new Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.
18. Jacob Barnett: IQ 170
Jacob Barnett is an academic prodigy who beat the odds after being diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the age of two. Doctors predicted he wouldn’t be able to tie his own shoes. Fast-forward to the present, Barnett is now a theoretical physicist at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, boasting an IQ higher than that of Einstein, at 170.
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Caitriona Maria
Education writeratTPR Teaching|https://www.tprteaching.com
Caitriona Maria is an education writer and founder of TPR Teaching, crafting inspiring pieces that promote the importance of developing new skills. For 7 years, she has been committed to providing students with the best learning opportunities possible, both domestically and abroad. Dedicated to unlocking students' potential, Caitriona has taught English in several countries and continues to explore new cultures through her travels.
