Arran Fernandez, England, born June 1995, is a home-educated

Home education

Home education is a collective term used in the UK to describe education provided otherwise than through the schooling system. Parents have a duty to ensure their children are educated but the education legislation in England and Wales does not differentiate between school attendance or education...

 student who broke the age record for gaining a General Certificate of Secondary Education

General Certificate of Secondary Education

The General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is equivalent to a Level 2 and Level 1 in Key Skills...

 (GCSE), the English academic qualification usually taken at age 16. Sitting the examinations at the age of five, he was awarded GCSE Mathematics in 2001. In 2003 he became the youngest ever person to gain an A* grade at GCSE, also for Mathematics.

In October 2010, aged 15 years and 3 months, he became the youngest undergraduate at Cambridge University

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 since William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...

 in 1773,, when he began studying the University's Mathematics Tripos

Cambridge Mathematical Tripos

The Mathematical Tripos is the taught mathematics course at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos that is examined in Cambridge.-Origin:...

.

Starting in 2000 Fernandez has had several sequences published in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences , also cited simply as Sloane's, is an online database of integer sequences, created and maintained by N. J. A. Sloane, a researcher at AT&T Labs...

 (OEIS), the number theory

Number theory

Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...

 database established by Neil Sloane

Neil Sloane

Neil James Alexander Sloane is a British-U.S. mathematician. His major contributions are in the fields of combinatorics, error-correcting codes, and sphere packing...

.

His television work has included an appearance as a "Person of the Week" on Frank Elstner

Frank Elstner

Frank Elstner, full name Timm Maria Franz Elstner is a German television presenter.Elstner went to school in Rastatt in Germany and gained his first experience in broadcasting as a child when he acted in radio plays for the station then known as Südwestfunk, now as Südwestrundfunk, which served...

's chat show

Talk show

A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

 on German TV in 2001, and an appearance on Terry Wogan

Terry Wogan

Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...

 and Gaby Roslin

Gaby Roslin

Gaby Roslin is an English television presenter and actress. She rose to fame while co-presenting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 between 1992 and 1996, and also presented the BBC's Children in Need charity appeal from 1994 to 2004....

's Terry and Gaby Show

The Terry and Gaby Show

The Terry and Gaby Show was a daytime television show broadcast on Five on weekday mornings between June 2003 and April 2004, produced by Chris Evans' company UMTV. It was hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin....

 on British TV in 2003, when he beat mathematics populariser Johnny Ball

Johnny Ball

Johnny Ball is a British television personality, a great populariser of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoë Ball.-Early life:...

 in a live mental arithmetic

Mental calculation

Mental calculation comprises arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from calculators, computers, or pen and paper. People use mental calculation when computing tools are not available, when it is faster than other means of calculation , or in a competition context...

 contest, successfully extracting the fifth roots

Nth root

In mathematics, the nth root of a number x is a number r which, when raised to the power of n, equals xr^n = x,where n is the degree of the root...

 of several large integers.

Fernandez has written a book on Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's plays.