Jake Barnett is a math and science prodigy with autism (Asperger’s)

Jake Barnett is a math and science prodigy with autism (Asperger’s).At age two, Jake Barnett began to regress – he stopped speaking and making eye contact. The diagnosis: autism. His future was unclear. It was thought he was uncommunicative, and it was thought he was unable to learn. Initially, he was placed in special education classes. Barnett was acing college match and science courses at eight-years-old after his mother took him out of special ed classes to homeschool him and help him follow his passions.At 13, the Indianapolis boy was a college sophomore taking honors classes in math and physics, while also doing scientific research and tutoring fellow students.He told 60 Minutes’ Morley Safer autism “is the reason why I am in college, and I am so successful.” He is said to have a 170 IQ, higher than Einstein.In 2015, he was a Ph.D. student at the Perimeter Institute for Advanced Theoretical Physics in Canada.CREDIT: CBS News