Two Chinese win world’s top Maths prize for solving century-old problems
Mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng are China's first Fields Medal recipients
Two Chinese mathematicians have made history by becoming the first from China to receive the Fields Medal, widely regarded as the highest honour in mathematics.
Hong Wang and Yu Deng were among four recipients of this year’s award, alongside American mathematician John Pardon and Canadian mathematician Jacob Tsimerman. Each laureate received a prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars (about US$10,500).
The awards recognise groundbreaking work that solved mathematical problems that had remained unsolved for more than a century. Wang, 35, also became only the third woman ever to receive the prestigious honour.
The medals were presented on Thursday in the United States during the International Congress of Mathematicians, at a time when advances in artificial intelligence are transforming many areas of scientific research.
The achievement sparked widespread celebration across China, where related topics quickly trended on social media platforms such as Weibo and RedNote.
Many users described the awards as a historic milestone and a source of national pride.
Chinese media extensively covered the accomplishment, highlighting the winners’ academic journeys, research contributions and the significance of the achievement for China’s mathematical community.
Shing-Tung Yau, the first ethnic Chinese mathematician to win the Fields Medal, described the recognition as the fulfilment of a long-held aspiration for Chinese mathematicians.
Wang received the award for work carried out with fellow mathematician Josh Zahl on a geometric problem first proposed by Japanese mathematician Soichi Kakeya in 1917. The research examined the smallest possible space a rotating object, such as a pencil, would occupy when turned through a full rotation in three-dimensional space.
Their findings, published last year, resolved one of mathematics’ longstanding questions.
Speaking about the breakthrough, Wang said the problem had attracted widespread interest because similar mathematical patterns appear across many different scientific fields.
Deng, 37, was recognised for solving a major aspect of Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, one of the famous mathematical challenges posed by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900.
His research focused on explaining how the collective behaviour of gases can be derived from the motion of individual particles, providing an important advance in mathematical physics.
Deng described the award as a tremendous honour, saying he was proud to be recognised alongside many mathematicians he had long admired.
Wang’s research has largely focused on harmonic analysis, a branch of mathematics that studies wave behaviour and related phenomena.
The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 whose work has made exceptional contributions to the field.
Both Wang and Deng were born in China and later continued their academic careers abroad.
Born in Guilin in southern China’s Guangxi region, Wang entered Peking University at just 16 after skipping two grades in primary school. She initially studied earth sciences before switching to mathematics. She later pursued graduate studies in France and completed her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
She currently serves as a professor at New York University and as a permanent professor at France’s Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES).
Following the announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Wang, praising her as a symbol of excellence in research and higher education.
Deng also entered Peking University in 2007 after excelling in mathematics competitions from a young age. He later transferred to MIT, earned his doctorate at Princeton University and has been a professor at the University of Chicago since 2024.
Source: BBC
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