One of the most important scientists and mathematicians in the 20th century died May 1

http://www.obituarychicago.com/2011/05/one-of-nations-top-mathematicians.html

One of the nation's top mathematicians enrolled at University of Chicago at 13

(POSTED: 5/9/11) At an age when many teenage boys are chasing girls, J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was chasing a Ph.D.

The Chicago native was only 13 years old when he enrolled at the University of Chicago, and by age 19 he had earned a doctorate in mathematics.

Mr. Wilkins, a prominent African-American scientist, engineer and educator whose 61-year career included work on the first atom bomb, died May 1 of respiratory failure, his son said. He was 87. snip

Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, the younger Mr. Wilkins was the eldest of three boys, all of whom possessed such extraordinary intellect that teachers, unable to challenge them adequately, just kept skipping them to the next grade.