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I have quite a few on my list.

Newton and Leibniz since the day I learned they were 22/19 (respectively) when they invented the calculus, Riemann as well (one of my teaching assistants was mad about him as well... it caught on)

Godel

Gödel after I'd took a course focusing on completeness and incompleteness, as well after you read his biographies.

Saharon Shelah, after one of my professors that did his Ph.D. under Shelah told me a lot about him. Finished his master degree in one year, Ph.D. in two. Invented so much... he's a real inspiration for me.

Grothendieck is a personal inspiration from another end. Not as a mathematician but as a human being. The fact he was able to get up and leave everything. That is amazing for me.

And while we're at it, Albert Einstein since I was 21 and read the book Ideas and Opinions.

What matters is less the work, but rather the ability to express with clarity a new idea that no one had before. That's what makes a great mathematician in my eyes... at least from where I stand today.
show/hide this revision's text 1 [made Community Wiki]

I have quite a few on my list. Newton and Leibniz since the day I learned they were 22/19 (respectively) when they invented the calculus, Riemann as well (one of my teaching assistants was mad about him as well... it caught on)

Godel after I'd took a course focusing on completeness and incompleteness, as well after you read his biographies.

Saharon Shelah, after one of my professors that did his Ph.D. under Shelah told me a lot about him. Finished his master degree in one year, Ph.D. in two. Invented so much... he's a real inspiration for me.

Grothendieck is a personal inspiration from another end. Not as a mathematician but as a human being. The fact he was able to get up and leave everything. That is amazing for me.

And while we're at it, Albert Einstein since I was 21 and read the book Ideas and Opinions.

What matters is less the work, but rather the ability to express with clarity a new idea that no one had before. That's what makes a great mathematician in my eyes... at least from where I stand today.