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T.Tao's first publication (at least the first one that shows up on MathSciNet) was in 1996, the same year he finished his mathematics PhD. I would say for most
by joppy 4y ago
T.Tao's first publication (at least the first one that shows up on MathSciNet) was in 1996, the same year he finished his mathematics PhD. I would say for most people working towards the pure side of mathematics, having over 5 papers before the end of a PhD is not at all typical.
- lupire 4y agoTerence Tao finished his PhD at age 21. So he both didn't publish major work before PhD, but did publish major work at a young age. Most math PhDs including OP topic Lichtman would start after age 20 and finish at age 24-28. So Lichtman might be on a similar trajectory as Tao, but not accelerated through formal schooling. And since Lichtman's work is in elementary number theory (similar to combinatorics, one of Tao's main subjects), it's more accessible to early results from a brilliant person with less experience. Other subjects require more background study before reaching new territory. People on this thread say that in recent years there has been a lot of pressure for math researchers to publish far more often partial / lower quality work to match the publication rate of other fields. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48399/how-many-papers-should-a-phd-student-in-math-try-to-publish-before-graduating https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48399/how-many-...