Great Immigrant: Terence Tao
Born in Australia to parents who had immigrated from Hong Kong, Terence Tao is a world-leading mathematician who is often called the “Mozart of math.” A new Carnegie-commissioned comic series highlights Tao’s story and the stories of other naturalized citizens who enrich American society and strengthen our democracy
By Jongsma + O’Neill & Chuan Ming Ong
Aug 15, 2025
Terence Tao immigrated from Australia to the United States when he was 16 to pursue a PhD at Princeton University. He was the youngest winner of the International Mathematical Olympiad at age 13, immigrated to the United States when he was 16 to pursue a PhD at Princeton University, and, after receiving an O-1 visa for immigrants with “extraordinary ability,” he became the youngest tenured professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, at age 24.
In 2006, Tao was awarded the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, “for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and additive number theory.” His other awards include the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “Genius Grant,” and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.
For Tao, mathematics is a collaborative “transnational activity” that requires working across disciplines and borders, with individual discoveries building up cumulatively over the years and centuries. “Mathematicians often work on pure problems that do not have any applications for 20 years,” says Tao, “and then a physicist or computer scientist or engineer has a real-life problem that requires the solution of a mathematical problem and finds that someone already solved it 20 years ago.”
Every Fourth of July, Carnegie Corporation of New York celebrates the exemplary contributions of immigrants to American life, as part of its focus on reducing political polarization and strengthening democracy. To highlight their stories, the foundation has commissioned a new comic series that illustrates how naturalized citizens enrich American society.
Download Terence Tao’s full comic here.
* The O-1 visa, which is reserved for “persons of extraordinary ability,” was limited to 40,040 as of 2024. (Source: How the United States Immigration System Works, American Immigration Council, 2024)
Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill lead Jongsma + O’Neill, a nonfiction storytelling studio. They are Sundance fellows, Emmy nominees, and the creators of the immersive exhibition Loot. 10 Stories, which won the 2024 XR-History Award.
Chuan Ming Ong is a Dutch illustrator whose illustrations have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and Nikkei Asia.
