<p>Arie Israel isn't your typical doctoral candidate.</p>
<p>He doesn't have a bachelor's degree.</p>
<p>He never received a high school diploma.</p>
<p>In fact, he's barely old enough to vote.</p>
<p>But Aug. 11, on his 18th birthday, the Boca Raton, Fla., whiz kid received his master's degree in mathematics from Florida Atlantic University. And next month, he will attend Princeton University, where he will enroll in a math Ph.D. program. One of the world's top mathematicians recommended him for the program.</p>
<p>He probably wouldn't do too amazingly at first. The average math master degree curriculum doesn't really have an incredible amount of overlap with the material on the USAMO. I'm sure he'd do very well if he studied that material for a while, but it would be tough doing such difficult problems under pressure without having already done a number of similar problems.</p>
<p>But it's an incredible accomplishment regardless.</p>
<p>"As a graduate student, Israel started working as a teaching assistant at 15. At first, it was awkward, he said. They nicknamed him 'Doogie Howser,' referring to the teenage physician television character from the early 1990s."</p>
<p>interesting, since on the show, doogie graduated from princeton of all places, although at the slightly more preocious age of 10. (it probably helped that the show's emmy-winning creator, david e. kelley (the practice, ally mcbeal, etc), was himself a princeton man.) another doogie/princeton factoid: in 1999, princeton biology prof joe tsien made the cover of time magazine after genetically engineering a smarter strain of mouse that he named "doogie."</p>
<p>his parents will probably get him a cage and have it lock at 8 pm at night so he studies math all night and if he falls asleep, the cage will shock him. :-D</p>