American genius
A 2005 printing of US postage stamps in honor of American scientific genius: showing Americans: Barbara McClintock, Willard Gibbs, Richard Feynman, and Hungarian-born American John Neumann (who came to America at age 26).
In genius studies, American genius is a human who is born, i.e. chemically synthesized, in the country of the United States, who becomes a genius.

Overview
The term “American genius”, based on books penned with this subtitle, according to Google Books, include: Louis Armstrong, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Frank Wright, Henry Longfellow, Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958) (Ѻ), Winslow Homer, Orson Welles, and Abraham Lincoln, to name the predominate listings.












Rankings
See main: Genius epochs
The following is a work-in-progress ranking of American geniuses, as subset of the top 1000 geniuses, in short:


Person
IQ Estimates
Description

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1

210
[5]
Gibbs (75px)Willard Gibbs
(1839-1903)

Gibbs model 2(Cattell 1000:N/A) [RGM:N/A|1,310+] [GTE] [GCE] [GPE] [GEE] (CR:759|#2); first American PhD engineer; his genius is unmistakable:

“Gibbs is the greatest mind in American history.”
Albert Einstein (c.1925)

“In the last generation, this country produced one of the most eminent men of science in the whole world. His name was quite unknown among us while he lived, and it is still unknown. Yet I may say without too great exaggeration that when I heard it mentioned in a professional assembly in the Netherlands two years ago, everybody got down under the table and touched their foreheads to the floor. His name was Josiah Willard Gibbs”.
Albert Nock (1931)

Central founder of chemical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, vector analysis; quote: “[untold number of] Nobel Prizing-winning careers [have been] launched from a passing remark or footnote in Gibbs’ monumental masterpiece [Equilibrium, 1876]” (Frank Weinhold, 2009); his 700-equation Equilibrium is the most-complex, dense, and treasure-filled scientific treatise ever published—the key to the elective affinities problem (see: affinity-free energy equation)—the greatest of all genius puzzles—that was described by John Strutt (IQ:190|#42), official solver of the two-century long blue sky problem, as being “too difficult and too condensed for most, I might say all, readers”—James Maxwell (IQ:210|#4), in fact, was the only one, of the 300 scientists Gibbs mailed it to, that immediately understood it (see: thermodynamic surface and Maxwell’s thermodynamic surface); first-slating: 195-220 (c.2013).
2

195
[13]
Gilbert Lewis 75Gilbert Lewis
(1875-1946)

Lewis Dot Structure (1902)[RGM:N/A|1,310+] (CR:483|#5) [Nobel Prize icon:35] American physical chemist and chemical thermodynamicist; eponym of the Lewis school of thermodynamics, first to translated and distill Willard Gibbs' On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances—the densest scientific treatise of all time—into a practical and workable language chemists could readily understand; invented the dot structure pair model of chemical bonding; did some of the first work on relativity; coined the term photon; Linus Pauling's On the Nature of the Chemical Bond (1939) was dedicated to him; quote: “Lewis was the direct mentor of more Nobel Prize winners in chemistry than any Nobel Prize winner in any category” (Adriaan de Lange, 1998); his 1925 Anatomy of Science, speculated on hmolscience, i.e. on whether or not him writing this book was nothing but a large "chemical reaction" (extrapolate up) or conversely whether crystals "think" (extrapolate down); his protégé Frederick Rossini, author of the 1950 Chemical Thermodynamics, followed up on the former approach with his 1971 Priestley Medal address ‘Chemical Thermodynamics in the Real World’, which sparked the later 21st century Rossini debate; first-draft slating: IQ:190-200 (c.2015)
3

195
[21]
Henry Adams 75Henry Adams
(1838-1918)
Collected works: 12+

Henry Adams (thought experiment) 3[RGM:811|1,310+] (SN:2) (CR:241) American historian;

“No one shall convince me that I am not a phase.”

penned nine-volume American history set solely to prove cause and effect; his The Education of Henry Adams (1907), which is ranked as the greatest American nonfiction book of the twentieth century (American Library), grapples with: Goethe, Gibbs, Clausius, Thomson, Pearson, Darwin, among others, in search of a unified theory of the humanities and physical sciences; prophet of the "another Newton"; biggest hmolscience thinker since Goethe; spent five decades on the social-history aspects of the elective affinities problem; quote: “social chemistry—the mutual attraction of equivalent human molecules—is a science yet to be created, for the fact is my daily study and only satisfaction in life” (1885); quote: "I would travel a few thousand-million miles to discuss with [Thomson] the thermodynamics of socialistic society” (1909); probably the first true hmolscientist (human chemist + human thermodynamicist + human physicist); known to many as an enigmatic genius of political thought; first-slating: 185-195 (c.2016).
4

190
[37]
Jefferson 75Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
Library: 6,700+ (Ѻ)
 IQ_B \,=195
 IQ_{CB} \,=178
 IQ_C \,=160
 IQ_W \,=160
IQ_S \,=160
Jefferson on religion 2(Cattell 1000:79) [RGM:29|1,245+] (Murray 4000:N/A) (HD:17) (CR:21) American founding father; third American President; author of declaration of independence (based on Newtonian mechanics); thinker behind the separation of church and state; fabled "last persons to know everything"; thing philosopher; an unlearn expositor; auto-characterized Epicurean materialist.
5

190
[38]
Linus Pauling 75Linus Pauling
(1901-1994)
IQ JP=180
IQ SS=160, 170, 180
 IQ_O \,=160
Pauling (chemical bond)[RGM:173|1,310+] [GCE] [DNP] (EPD genius) (CR:55) American chemical engineer; startup chemical company (before age 15); studied under Arnold Sommerfeld in Munich, Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, and Erwin Schrödinger in Zürich, during which time he became interested in how quantum mechanics might be applied in his chosen field of interest, the electronic structure of atoms and molecules; also, in Zürich, Pauling was also exposed to one of the first quantum mechanical analyses of bonding in the hydrogen molecule, done by Walter Heitler and Fritz London; his 1938 The Nature of the Chemical Bond has been referred to as the “bible” of modern chemistry; gets upgrade for, in 1989, ripping apart Schrodinger's thermodynamic views on life (see: Note to Chapter 6).
6

185
[49]
Richard Feynman 75 Richard Feynman
(1918-1988)
IQ SS=225
 IQ_O \,=190
 IQ_O \,=125
Feynman diagram 2[RGM:146|1,330+] (CR:79|#57) American physicist;iIn grade school, infamously scored 125 on an IQ test; as an MIT senior, in 1939, had the highest score in the nation on the Putnam; he supposedly had a standing bet that he could solve any problem to within 10% within 60 seconds; and some have suggested his non-verbal IQ was greater than 190 (Ѻ); motto: "believe in the atomic hypothesis" (Feynman time capsule wisdom); known for: quantum electrodynamics; see also: Feynman problem solving algorithm. Dirac is generally ranked, e.g. by Freeman Dyson (Ѻ), among others (Ѻ), as smarter than Feynman.
7

185
[54]
Percy Bridgman 75Percy Bridgman
(1882-1961)
IQ JP=180
IQ EM=170
Princeton university (social physics)(CR:65|#75) American physicist and social physicist; known for Bridgman equations; Bridgman paradox (key modern topic); thermodynamics founders and suicide; played key role in John Q. Stewart's 1939-1954 Princeton Department of Social Physics.
8

185
[58]
Edison 75Thomas Edison
(1847-1931)
IQ SS=240
 IQ_B \,=195
Lightbulb[RGM:31|1,260+] (FA:110) (CR:40|#93) Invented: practical light bulb (1878) based on the electric arc lamp (1802) invention by Humphry Davy (IQ:185|#71) (Ѻ), phonograph, and motion picture camera; and originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories; gave pretty decent stance (see: Edison on the soul) on religious theories (e.g. soul, life, immortality, spirit) query during 1909 New York Times interview; upgrade (↑) for his comments on Thomas Paine (IQ:180|#139).
9

185
[62]
Norman Dolloff 75Norman Dolloff
(1907-1984)
IQ SN= 186± Organism synthesis equation (Dolloff, 1975) 2(SN:5|55+) American metallurgical engineering geologist; in his Heat Death and the Phoenix (1975), he gives a so-called "organism synthesis equation" (adjacent). Classified as the transition point mindset of someone grappling to switch from the entropy "order/disorder" model of everything to the "free energy" model of everything; all done in the framework of explicit atheism.

10

180
[105]
Lawrence Henderson 75Lawrence Henderson
(1878-1942)

Harvard Pareto circle (new) 3(SN:8) American physiologist; ran the Harvard Pareto circle; used a synthesis of Gibbs and Vilfredo Pareto for his pioneering "Sociology 23" course; the last great theory of all things theorists (following Henry Adams).
11

180
[130]
John Bardeen 75John Bardeen
(1908-1991)

[RGM:N/A|1,330+] (EPD genius) (CR:7) American physicist and electrical engineer; noted as dual Nobel laureate (Nobel Prize iconNobel Prize icon): Nobel Prize physics (1956) for the invention of the transistor; Nobel Prize physics (1972) for the theory of superconductivity; see True Genius: the Life and Science of John Bardeen: the Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics (2002); first-slated: 180|#130 (c.2016).
12

180
[138]
Frederick Rossini 75Frederick Rossini
(1899-1990)

Freedom and security equation (Rossini, 1970)(SN:7|55+) American physical chemist and chemical thermodynamicist; in his “Chemical Thermodynamics in the Real World” (1971), stated very directly that via the following equation (adjacent): we can come to understand the paradox between freedom and security in society; huge downgrade ↓ for ending this beautiful speech with “the point of all of this is that our creator has fashioned laws [of thermodynamics] that are deep seated and broadly applicable [to our social interactions]”; down-graded from 185|#83 (original guesstimate) to 180|#140 (Feb 2018) per creationism comments.
13

180
[148]
James Madison 75James Madison
(1751-1836)
 IQ_C \,=160
IQ Simonton c=160
(Cattell 1000:476) [RGM:177|1,305+] American political leader; one of the chiefs of Princeton School of Social Physics; used Newtonian government in the construction of the US Constitution, such as the principle of separation of powers, as found in celestial mechanics.
13

180
[158]
John Tukey 75John Tukey
(1915-2000)
IQ CP=200±
 IQ_O \,=180
(SN:13) American chemist, mathematician, and statistician; noted for his 1966 free energy theory of attitude state changes, based on the theory of absolute reaction rates in chemistry; first-slating: 180|#158 (see: IQ:200+ HCT prodigies) (c.2016).
14

180
[178]
John Nash 75John Nash
(1928-2015)
IQ CP=200±
 IQ_O \,=180
[RGM:325|1,245+] (CR:23) American economist; described, at age 20, as “a genius” in his letter of recommendation by Carnegie Tech professor R.L. Duffin; Based his 1949 “Nash equilibrium”, and supposedly game theory, supposedly, on the statistical interactions of reacting molecules from his studies of chemical engineering and chemistry at Carnegie Tech; some rank Nash at the IQ=200+ level and compare his genius to that of Nikola Tesla or John Neumann (Ѻ); famously known for his mixture of genius and madness (e.g. A Beautiful Mind, 2001); a Discovery.com top 5 mad genius (Ѻ); (V) Quote: “It is believed that mathematician John Forbes Nash had an IQ around 180” (Jennifer Evans, 2010). (Ѻ)
15

180
[197]
Shannon 75Claude Shannon
(1916-2001)

[RGM:N/A|1,330+] (Murray 4000:N/A) American electrical engineer; noted for his age 21 penned 1937 MS thesis “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits” (Ѻ) mapped Boolean algebra into circuit language; he later went on to invent information theory; guestimated IQ (2012) of 180± (Ѻ); forum (2017) cited IQ (Ѻ) at 180.
16

175
[208]
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln
(1809-1865)
 IQ_{CB} \,=160
 IQ_C \,=150
 IQ_B \,=170
 IQ_W \,=147
IQ Simonton c=150
(Cattell 1000:40) [RGM:49|1,320+] (Murray 4000:N/A) American president [See: American Presidents by IQ];

“Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1838), Speech, Jan 27 (Ѻ)

noted for his Emancipation Proclamation (1863) which ended slavery and brought a close to the civil war; made decisions using Euclidian logic.
17

175
[210]
Franklin 75Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)
 IQ_{CB} \,=173
 IQ_C \,=160
 IQ_B \,=185
 IQ_W \,=160
Franklin kite (1752)(Cattell 1000:45) [RGM:22|1,300+] (Murray 4000:14|T) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat; a so-called "last universal genius"; a founding father (see: founding fathers fallacy); pioneer in the science of electricity; famously noted for his key on kite lightening experiment.
18

175
[220]
Edgar Poe 75Edgar Poe
(1809-1849)
 IQ_O \,=145 [RGM:55|1,330+] [GLA:14] American writer, editor, and literary critic; best-known for his poem “The Raven” (1845) noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere, which tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness, as he is lamenting the loss of his love; sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore"; The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references; Yahoo Answers IQ estimated (Ѻ) at 145; his interpolated IQ per GLA position is 170 to 180; his comments on Margaret Fuller (IQ:#|#), madness and intelligence (similar to Aristotle), and true genius, would seem to align him higher ↑
in rankings; position 175|#190 guestimate (Jun 2017).
19

175
[246]
John Adams 75John Adams
(1735-1826)
 IQ_C \,=155
IQ Simonton c=155
[RGM:188|1,250+] (HD:14) (Cattell 1000:182) (founding father:3) (American President:2) was an American politician and thinker; patriarch of the so-called Adams family (or Adams political family): his son, John Quincy Adams, was 6th president, and his great grandson was Henry Adams, the leading social Newton, behind Goethe.

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Quotes
The following are related quotes:

“We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects. Yet, how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact! There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny our doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation. Who would run the risk of translating Dupuis?”
John Adams (1825), “Letter to Thomas Jefferson”, Jan 23

“I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.”
Margaret Fuller (c.1840), publication (Ѻ)

“There is one spot in America, which I would like to visit, viz the long-neglected spot in Baltimore where the greatest American genius lies buried. In my opinion your Bryant, Whittier, etc., are pygmies compared with Poe. He is the literary glory of America. More than thirty-five years have elapsed since his death, and his fame is constantly increasing. That is a true test of genius.”
Alfred Tennyson (1885) (Ѻ)

“The greatest American genius of that day was the oldest man in the convention [Philadelphia, May, 1787], Benjamin Franklin, aged eighty-one. Of him and of George Washington nothing need be said, as every schoolboy knows their history.”
— Henry Elson (1900), Side Lights on American History (pg. 33)

Gibbs is the greatest mind in American history.”
Albert Einstein (c.1925), Source; cited by William Phelps (1939), in Autobiography (pg. 425)

“Who is the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced? The answer ‘Charles Peirce’ is uncontested, because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating. Mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor; psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, lifelong student of medicine; book reviewer, dramatist, actor, short-story writer; phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician [and] metaphysician.”
— Max Fisch (1981), Publication [1]

References
1. Everett, Daniel. (2019). “The American Aristotle: Charles Sanders Peirce was a brilliant philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. His polymathic work should be better known” (Ѻ), Aeon.co, Aug 15.

Further reading
● Rukeyser, Muriel. (1942). Willard Gibbs: American Genius (Academy member quote, pg. 251; Gibbs' theses advised, pgs. 327-28; diagram anecdote, pgs. 328-29). Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc.

External links
American Genius – Wikipedia.

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