It would be fascinating to know where this rumor among non-mathematicians got started about the greatest living mathematician. Jean Pierre Serre is still alive. As is Edward Witten. And Simon Donaldson. As well as Peter Scholze. And Jacob Lurie. Not to mention Graeme Segal. Or Nigel Hitchin. Or Pierre Deligne. To say nothing of Dan Freed. Or Michael Hopkins. Or Maxim Konsevitch. Or ST Yau and Mikhail Gromov. Or Drinfeld and Beilinson. Or…. I think Terry Tao is amazing. I cannot shake the feeling that the New York Times and some people at Princeton came up with a meme that Tao won the prize as the greatest living mathematician. Which simply never happened. I’m sorry, but this is wrong. Nothing against Tao. But It’s just a meme.