Edith Stern's childhood Stanford-Binet was reported at about 203 — a 1960s ratio score. Her father argued the programme produced it. That claim is the real story.
An upbringing written as a plan
Her father, Aaron Stern, an Austrian-born Holocaust survivor, believed intelligence was highly malleable. He set out to produce, in his words, a perfect human being, and described the method in The Making of a Genius (1971). Step through it.
From her first days, adults around her were asked to speak to her in complete, adult sentences — no baby talk — with classical music playing in the home.
Six to seven years ahead
She entered Florida Atlantic University at 12 and finished a mathematics degree at 15 — faster than most gifted programmes would consider responsible. She then earned a master's in mathematics at Michigan State at 17, teaching there before joining IBM.
The number that matters more
Stern joined IBM in the early 1970s and stayed her whole career, rising from summer intern to Distinguished Engineer and a vice president for research and development. Her patents span telephony, digital media, mobile systems and health care.
IBM named her a Master Inventor in 1998 and elected her to its Academy of Technology in 1999; in 2012 she received ASME's Kate Gleason Award for lifetime achievement in engineering.
From 1970s phone networks to Watson
More than 100 patents at IBM, and over 200 by her later count. The projects behind them, by era:
Real-time computing for phone systems; she is credited with work behind direct dialing to extensions.
The feature that lets you ring back the last number that called you.
Patents on mixing music or sound into voicemail and calls to carry emotional context.
Part of the team whose system for Warner Bros. Television won a Technology & Engineering Emmy.
Put tablet computers into 18-wheeler cabs for logistics companies.
Started projects using radio-frequency ID tags to track assets and patients.
Worked on applying Watson's analytics to health data.
Now advises companies on patent and IP strategy as an independent Master Inventor.
Three readings of one experiment
Father and daughter, side by side
Reading the 203
A 1960s childhood ratio score. Like others at the extreme it doesn't map to the modern adult scale, and as a single case it can't show how much came from the programme and how much from Edith herself.
Sources
- Stern, A. (1971). The Making of a Genius. Hialeah Miracle Press
- IBM Research Fellow records
- US Patent and Trademark Office — Edith Stern patent list
- New York Times prodigy coverage (1960s)
- Florida Atlantic University academic records