(ECNS) -- Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu were awarded the Fields Medals at the opening ceremony of the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians held in Philadelphia, the U.S., on Thursday, marking the first time Chinese mathematicians have won the prestigious honor.
Both graduated from Peking University as undergraduates.
Their awards mark the first time two Chinese mathematicians have received the honor at the same International Congress of Mathematicians, representing a historic breakthrough for China's mathematical development.
Wang solves century-old mathematical mystery
Wang is currently a tenured professor of mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France and a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Her research focuses on harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, two highly abstract and challenging areas of modern mathematics.
In February 2025, Wang and her collaborator Joshua Zahl published a 127-page preprint paper, proving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture. The breakthrough not only resolves a problem that had puzzled mathematicians for more than 100 years, but also provides a new analytical framework for fields such as radar, remote sensing and signal processing.
Renowned mathematician and Fields Medal laureate Shing-Tung Yau described the result as a milestone contribution.
In addition, Wang proved the exact theorem for the two-dimensional Falconer distance problem with Larry Guth, Alex Iosevich and Ou Yumeng, and, together with Ren Kaiyuan, completely resolved the Furstenberg set conjecture.
Wang was born in 1991 and entered Peking University at the age of 16. She earned master's degrees from Paris-Saclay University and École Polytechnique, and received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019 under the supervision of Larry Guth.
With the Fields Medal, Wang is the third woman — and first from China — to be awarded the world's most prestigious mathematics prize.
Deng honored for breakthrough on Hilbert's sixth problem
Deng was recognized for groundbreaking work spanning partial differential equations, fluid mechanics, harmonic analysis and statistical physics.
In 2024 and 2025, Deng and collaborators Zaher Hani and Ma Xiao published two landmark papers that, for the first time, rigorously derived the complete mathematical link between microscopic particle systems and the macroscopic Boltzmann equation. Their work resolved a core branch of Hilbert's sixth problem, a famous problem posed by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900.
Yau praised Deng's work for deriving fluid equations from fundamental laws of physics, calling it a profoundly important achievement.
Deng was born in 1989. Raised in Shenzhen, Deng showed exceptional talent in mathematics. In 2006, he won a gold medal at the 47th International Mathematical Olympiad, later studying at Peking University before transferring to MIT. He earned his PhD from Princeton University in 2015.
He had previously received honors including the Clay Research Award, the Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics, and the Morningside Gold Medal.
Historic recognition reflects China's growing influence in mathematics
Yau said that their achievements realize a goal that China's mathematics community has pursued for decades and signify the overall maturation of Chinese mathematics.
The Fields Medal is a top international mathematics prize awarded every four years to two to four young researchers in recognition of their outstanding mathematical achievements in existing work and their promise of future achievement.
Since the Fields Medal was established in 1936, there have been only five occasions when two mathematicians from the same country won the award in the same edition, achieved by the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia.
Today, with two young Chinese mathematicians reaching the pinnacle of the highest honor in mathematics in the same edition, China has taken a major step forward in its transition from a large mathematics community to a global mathematics powerhouse.
(By Gong Weiwei)
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