Dr Wolfram has a reputation for making sweeping claims. Once described by Wired as “the Bob Dylan of physics”, he is a reclusive and controversial figure who has always defiantly done his own thing. Born in London in 1959, he studied at Eton and Oxford, dazzling and infuriating his teachers in equal measure and leaving the university without graduating. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 15, completed a PhD in particle physics at the California Institute of Technology, and had joined the faculty and been awarded a MacArthur “genius” award, worth $128,000, by the age of 21.

via The Economist.