William Siddis (1898-1944) was an American child prodigy, whose IQ was reportedly between 250-300, perhaps the highest ever. He had outstanding abilities in math, entered Harvard at age 11, and claimed to know 40 languages. An MIT professor predicted the young Siddis would become the greatest mathematician of the 20th century. William crashed and burned as an adult, however, holding menial jobs and getting in trouble with the law, never finding an avenue to live up to the expectations.
