Origins & Early Life

Terence Chi-Shen Tao (Chinese: 陶哲轩; pinyin: Táo Zhéxuān; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician and professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2006 for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and additive number theory. Among his best-known results is the Green–Tao theorem, proved with Ben Green, which states that the prime numbers contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Tao was born to Chinese immigrant parents and raised in Adelaide, South Australia.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

After earning his doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University and joining the faculty at UCLA, he went on to be a researcher, known for the diversity of his own interests and his collaborations with others. Tao has won many prizes for his work, including the Fields Medal in 2006 and the Royal Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2014. He is a 2006 MacArthur Fellow. Tao's published research includes topics in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, compressed sensing,...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

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