Two Chinese Win Fields Medal at ICM 2026

The 2026 Fields Medal, mathematics’ top honor for under-40 researchers, was awarded to four laureates: two Chinese nationals, Hong Wang and Yu Deng, along with American John Pardon and Canadian Jacob Tsimerman. Wang, 35, becomes the third woman to win the prize, and both she and Deng are noted as the first Chinese winners, reflecting a milestone for China’s scientific standing. Wang was recognized for solving a century-old Kakeya-type problem in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, while Deng was honored for progress related to Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, modeling gas behavior. Tsimerman, based at the University of Toronto, is the second Canadian to win and the first affiliated with a Canadian institution, and Pardon’s selection highlights ongoing international collaboration in a math landscape increasingly influenced by AI and global competition. The awards were celebrated in China as a landmark achievement and in North America as a testament to the field’s evolving talent pool, with prize money of 15,000 Canadian dollars awarded to each laureate. The ceremony underscored both the prestige of the Fields Medal and the shifting geopolitical dynamics in global mathematics research.