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16

In April, 1996, Federal Agents took the suspected Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, into custody. Kaczynski had received degrees in mathematics from two Universities and taught at another. Which ones?

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Before he was known as the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski had a truly brilliant, if brief, academic career. A mathematical prodigy, he was accepted into Harvard University at just 16 years old, graduating in 1962. From there, he went on to the University of Michigan, where he earned both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics. His doctoral dissertation on a complex branch of geometry was so advanced that one of his professors later commented that perhaps only 10 or 12 people in the country could even understand it.

Following his doctorate, Kaczynski was hired as the youngest-ever assistant professor of mathematics at the prestigious University of California, Berkeley. Despite this promising start, his time in academia was short. Colleagues and students found him socially withdrawn, and he struggled with teaching. He abruptly resigned his position in 1969 after only two years. This departure marked a pivotal turn, as he soon abandoned mainstream society for a reclusive life in a remote Montana cabin, from which he would later wage his anti-technology bombing campaign.