Four Mathematicians Receive 2026 Fields Medal
Sunday, 2026/07/26178 words3 minutes2115 reads
Four mathematicians received the 2026 Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics. The recipients are Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Hong Wang. The International Mathematical Union presents this medal every four years to recognize outstanding mathematical achievements.
Hong Wang and Yu Deng made history as the first Chinese mathematicians to receive the Fields Medal. Wang, 35, holds positions at New York University and the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France. She became the third woman ever to receive this honor.
Wang was recognized for her contributions to harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. Her work includes significant progress on the Kakeya problem in three dimensions. Working with Joshua Zahl, she helped resolve a version of this problem, which was first introduced by Japanese mathematician Soichi Kakeya in 1917. The problem explores how little space a line segment needs to point in every direction. The awards were announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia on July 23, 2026. All recipients must be under 40 on January 1 of the award year.
