American physician Sho Yano started college at age nine and earned an MD and Ph.D. by the time he was 21. He started composing music when he was four, but he’s put his focus on child neurology.
The infamous Nathan Leopold had an IQ of 200 and spoke nine languages by age 18, but he didn’t use his intelligence for the greater good. When he was 19, he and an accomplice were arrested for murder in 1924 after trying to commit the “perfect crime”—you know, the type of crime that never gets solved. Leopold spent 33 years in jail before being released on parole. He died in 1971.
3 Marilyn vos Savant: IQ 228
When Marilyn vos Savant was 10 years old, an adult-level Stanford-Binet test revealed she had an IQ of 228, which later landed her a Guinness World Record until the removed the category in 1990 because the numbers are considered inexact. She’s been answering philosophical and mathematical questions for Parade magazine readers in her “Ask Marilyn” column since 1986.
4 Ainan Cawley: IQ 263
This former Irish child genius, who’s now 23, is projected to have an IQ of 263. At eight years old, he was already taking third-year chemistry courses at Singapore Polytechnic, and by the time he was nine, he’d memorized the first 518 decimal places of pi. He also seems to have a knack for entertainment, having written the script and composed music for a short film called Reflection at age 12.
5 Johann Goethe: IQ 210–225
When American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims set out to find the person with the highest IQ in history, he did so using a methodology that predicts a person’s IQ based on how much they accomplished every 10 years of their life. This came in handy when attempting to rank people who themselves predated IQ tests. Based on his own approach, Thims estimated that German Renaissance man Johann Goethe was the person with the highest IQ of all time, with a score ranging from 210 to 225. While typically labeled as a philosopher, Goethe was also an accomplished scientist and poet.
6 Michael Kearney: IQ 200–325
Michael Kearney—who graduated from the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1994 at the age of 10—is the person who broke De Mello’s record. By the age of 22, Kearney had earned four undergraduate degrees in computer science, geology, and chemistry, in addition to his first degree in anthropology. Kearney has an IQ score that ranges from 200 to 325, depending on the test.
7 Leonardo da Vinci: IQ 180–220
While IQ tests weren’t around when Leonardo da Vinci was, it is now estimated that his score would have been between 180 and 220. This makes sense when you think about it: With skills ranging from art and science to music and architecture, da Vinci didn’t just work in different fields—he excelled at them. In fact, he was so ahead of his time that many of his inventions (like flying machines, the telescope, and the submarine) didn’t come to fruition until long after his death.
8 Isaac Newton: IQ 190–200
Sir Isaac Newton is another example of a scientist—in this case, a physicist—far ahead of his time. Though he’s best known for his universal principles of gravity, the 17th-century thinker was also a mathematician, astronomer, and writer. It is estimated that his IQ score would fall between 190 and 200, depending on the measures used. Fun fact: Isaac Newton was one of the geniuses who made history in quarantine.
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