Terence Tao

Terence Tao
FAA FRS
Born (1975-07-17) 17 July 1975
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Citizenship
  • Australia
  • United States[3]
Education
Known forPartial differential equations, analytic number theory, random matrices, compressed sensing, combinatorics, dynamical systems
SpouseLaura Tao
Children2
AwardsFields Medal (2006)
List
  • Salem Prize (2000)
  • Bôcher Memorial Prize (2002)
  • Clay Research Award (2003)
  • Australian Mathematical Society Medal (2005)
  • Ostrowski Prize (2005)
  • Levi L. Conant Prize (2005)
  • MacArthur Award (2006)
  • SASTRA Ramanujan Prize (2006)
  • Sloan Fellowship (2006)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society (2007)
  • Alan T. Waterman Award (2008)
  • Onsager Medal (2008)
  • King Faisal International Prize (2010)[1]
  • Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2010)
  • Pólya Prize (2010)[2]
  • Crafoord Prize (2012)
  • Simons Investigator (2012)
  • Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2014)
  • Royal Medal (2014)
  • PROSE Award (2015)
  • Riemann Prize (2019)
  • Princess of Asturias Award (2020)
  • Bolyai Prize (2020)
  • IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal (2021)
  • Global Australian of the Year Award (2022)
  • Grande Médaille (2023)
  • Best Paper Award (2023)
  • Alexanderson Award (2023)
Scientific career
FieldsHarmonic analysis
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Thesis Three Regularity Results in Harmonic Analysis[3]  (1996)
Doctoral advisorElias M. Stein
Doctoral studentsMonica Vișan, Tim Austin
Website
Terence Tao
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáo Zhéxuān
IPA[tʰǎʊ ʈʂɤ̌.ɕyán]
Wu
SuzhouneseDau Tseh-shie
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationTòuh Jit-hīn
JyutpingTou4 Zit3-hin1
IPA[tʰɔw˩ tsit̚˧.hin˥]

Terence Chi-Shen Tao FAA FRS (Chinese: 陶哲軒; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian–American mathematician, Fields medalist, and professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences. His research includes topics in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, compressed sensing and analytic number theory.[4]

Tao was born to Chinese immigrant parents and raised in Adelaide. Tao won the Fields Medal in 2006 and won the Royal Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2014, and is a 2006 MacArthur Fellow. Tao has been the author or co-author of over three hundred research papers,[5] and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living mathematicians.[6][7][8][9][10]

  1. ^ King Faisal Foundation – retrieved 11 January 2010.
  2. ^ "SIAM: George Pólya Prize". Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Vitae and Bibliography for Terence Tao". 12 October 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  4. ^ "Mathematician Proves Huge Result on 'Dangerous' Problem". 11 December 2019. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021.
  5. ^ "Search | arXiv e-print repository". arxiv.org.
  6. ^ Cook, Gareth (24 July 2015). "The Singular Mind of Terry Tao (Published 2015)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  7. ^ Mackenzie, Dana (2 October 2007). "Primed for Success". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  8. ^ "PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Terence Tao, PhD". bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov. 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  9. ^ Wolpert, Stuart (8 August 2006). "Terence Tao, 'Mozart of Math,' is first UCLA math prof to win Fields Medal". newsroom.ucla.edu. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Terence Tao: the Mozart of maths was invoked but never defined (see the help page).