[3] His mother discovered his ability one day while she was driving on the Capital Beltway when her toddler informed her, "The sign says 'Bethesda is to the right.'"

By fourth grade, he was participating in high school competitions (such as the American Regions Mathematics League) as a member of the Montgomery County math team.

He was part of the Johns Hopkins University Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth longitudinal cohort.

[7] In 2004, he began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics, a position he has held since 2015.

"[14] In addition to his research articles, he has authored a novel, The Grasshopper King,[15] which was a finalist for the 2004 Young Lions Fiction Award;[16] the "Do the Math" column in Slate;[17] two non-fiction books, How Not to Be Wrong;[18][19][20] and Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else (2022),[21] as well as articles on mathematical topics in many newspapers and general magazines.