What was the fate of the Korean prodigy Kim Un-young, who was considered the smartest boy in the world (7 photos)

He got into the Guinness Book of Records and at the age of 8 he was already working at NASA.





Kim Un Young was born in Seoul in 1962. His father was a professor of physics, his mother taught at the Faculty of Medicine.



Literally in the very first months of his life, the boy became a star. By six months he was already speaking fluently; by one year he already knew the entire alphabet. Then he began to show abilities in the exact sciences and at the age of three the little one began to solve problems in mathematical analysis. By the age of five, he learned English, French, German and Japanese. He studied physics closely and was fond of calligraphy.





Soon they learned about the miracle boy in Japan and made a documentary about him. In one of the scenes, the guy composed poems in different languages on a dare and instantly solved physics problems.

And when the talented boy turned 8 years old, he was invited to the USA. There he attended lectures on nuclear physics at the University of Colorado and went to work for the space agency NASA. He was assigned to work on string theory and calculate fuel volumes for spacecraft. Let us remember that the boy was 8 years old.

And this is where the problems started.



I felt very lonely. Nobody was friends with me. If you want to make friends with people at NASA, you have to hang out with them, but I wasn't allowed because I was too young.

I'm tired of this daily life. Every day I solved almost the same problems. I didn't have any friends there that I could rely on. I felt very lonely.



However, he continued to study and work. At the age of 16, he entered the Guinness Book of Records with a record IQ of 210 points (the norm is considered to be from 90 to 115 points) and he was offered a professorship at an elite university. But Kim refused and returned to Korea.

And in his homeland no one needed him anymore. He completed his studies in the USA, so he did not have a Korean high school diploma. I reluctantly entered an ordinary university and decided to study like everyone else - not to rush to take exams and graduate from college on time.



Later he became a teacher and lectured at several higher educational institutions. There weren’t enough stars from the sky, the public was no longer surprised - an ordinary teacher, just like thousands of others.

He gave interviews several times and said that he became happy only when they stopped seeing him as a genius. And if he had stayed to work at NASA, he would have committed suicide, he was so sad then.

Some people think that people with high IQs are somehow omnipotent, but no. I have no musical talent, no success in sports. Everyone has different learning levels, hopes, talents and dreams and we need to respect that.



Kim Un Young turned 62 today. He continues to teach and even became an assistant professor at the College of Liberal Arts at Shinhan University. Married, he has two sons, who for a long time did not know that their father was a child prodigy who was considered “the smartest boy in the world.” When he was a child, he was predicted to have a brilliant scientific career. When I grew up, they started calling me a loser.

And he responds to critics:

I consider my life successful: I do only what I want.