Top 8 People with the Best Memory in the World

Shakuntala Devi (1929-2013), one of the world’s most brilliant mental calculators, was born on November 4, 1929, in Bangalore, Southern India. Her extraordinary abilities amazed everyone from a very young age. By the time she was three, Shakuntala could recall numbers and demonstrated her mathematical prowess while playing cards with her father. By five, she was already a master at solving complex math problems.

The New York Times described her as a wizard of numbers. Her mental calculation skills surpassed those of computers, showcasing an exceptionally gifted mind. In 1980, at the Royal University of London, she astounded everyone by solving a 13-digit multiplication problem in just 28 seconds—faster than any computer of the time. This feat earned her a place in the Guinness World Records.

John Von Neumann (1903-1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath whose contributions spanned across quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, economics, computer science, numerical analysis, fluid dynamics, statistics, and numerous other areas of mathematics.

He inherited the intellectual brilliance of his Jewish heritage and is often regarded as the father of the computer. John had an extraordinary memory, able to recall entire phone numbers accurately after only seeing them once. At the age of six, he could mentally divide two 8-digit numbers, and conversed with his father in ancient Greek. By eight, he had an advanced understanding of calculus, and by twelve, he was working at a university level.

Known in the media as the "powerhouse brain", Ben Pridmore

Despite his extraordinary memory, Ben Pridmore credits his remarkable abilities to practice rather than innate talent. He relies on memory techniques like the Method of Loci (Roman Room method) and the Major System. He uses these methods to transform information such as cards, random numbers, or lists into vivid mental images, which he then links together in a pre-arranged journey for easier recall.

Eran Katz is a memory record holder who can memorize up to 500 consecutive digits. He is also a renowned speaker, having delivered over 2,000 talks across the globe to an audience of 250,000 people, sharing his secrets of memory techniques and other skills.

Professor Dan Ariely from Duke University, USA, and author of the best-selling book Predictably Irrational, commented, "Eran Katz's lectures are captivating. His positive messages and techniques are invaluable for anyone looking to reach new heights of success." Additionally, Eran Katz is the author of several books on memory training, translated into multiple languages. Two of his books, The Secrets of Super Memory and Jewish Wisdom, have been published in Vietnam.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer. His designs—around 300 of which were patented—were all visionary, which is why he is often called the "inventor of the 20th century."

He is known as the father of modern electrical technology, with groundbreaking inventions that reshaped the world, including 10 extraordinary discoveries: harnessing cosmic rays, electromagnetic induction, cold combustion, the teslascope, a death ray generator, weather control, X-ray guns, alternating current, lighting the world, and the Tesla oscillator. Tesla claimed he had the ability to "see through things and remember." He could memorize books without difficulty. He believed his eidetic memory and boundless creativity were inherited from his mother, Georgina Tesla (née Mandić), a talented woman who created household tools, mechanical devices, and could memorize long Serbian poems.

Dương Anh Vũ (born 1988) is renowned as the first person to set four world records for academic memory, recognized for memorizing the largest amount of scientific data in the world. He astonished the global community by recalling 108 systems of global statistics, totaling 22,248 entries, including 41,725 numbers, 18,725 datasets of words, 1,022 literary works from Vietnam and around the world, 2,500 geographical locations in international languages, and 20,000 digits of pi in mathematics.

On November 6, 2016, Dương Anh Vũ proudly received four consecutive academic memory records from international organizations based in the US, India, and Hong Kong. He shared that his memory journey didn’t begin with the common “short-term memory” techniques used by many, but rather through a passion for reading books, actively absorbing information (not skimming) and using Tony Buzan's mind-mapping method.

Stephen Wiltshire (born April 24, 1974) is a British architectural artist and a renowned savant. He is famous for his ability to draw intricate cityscapes from memory after seeing them just once. His artwork has gained worldwide recognition and admiration.

Despite a challenging early life with autism and being mute, Stephen's life has been filled with vibrant creativity, driven by his extraordinary memory. He uses painting as a medium to express his experiences and observations. Remarkably, he can recreate entire cityscapes in great detail after only brief glimpses, whether from a plane or train. His works include representations of cities like Rome, Hong Kong, Madrid, Dubai, and London, all done solely from his photographic memory, without relying on any reference materials.

Kim Peek (1951-2009) was an American savant known for his extraordinary memory, and served as the inspiration for the character in the movie Rain Man. Before becoming famous for his incredible memory, Kim was a troubled child, born with severe brain damage. Doctors told his parents that their son would never walk, talk, or even read, let alone go to school – he had no future.

However, like something out of a miracle, by the age of 16 months, Kim began reading and memorizing everything he saw. As an adult, he was dubbed the “Living Library,” or in modern terms, a “Human Google.” He became known as a super-intellect, able to master 15 different fields, including history, astronomy, music, sports, and geography. His mind could recall the contents of at least 12,000 books in perfect detail, and he could read two pages of a book simultaneously in just 8-10 seconds.