ety
Trusted Member
Chinese scholars awarded top mathematics prize
2026-07-24 HKT 08:04
Deng Yu (left) won the Fields medal for his work in partial differential equations while Wang Hong was recognised for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. Photo: Xinhua
China's Deng Yu and Wang Hong were awarded the most prestigious awards in the world of mathematics on Thursday, marking the first time Chinese mathematicians have received the honour.
The Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize of mathematics, is handed out every four years.
At the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians, held in the US city of Philadelphia, the International Mathematical Union announced that Deng won the medal for his work in partial differential equations (PDEs), while Wang won the medal for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory.
"It's a great honour to have my name listed after all those great mathematicians I've been always admiring," Deng said at a press conference.
"It's a really important recognition of myself, of my work, my work with collaborators, and the field of PDEs and also the probability that I'm representing."
"Roughly speaking, what I have been doing with collaborators is basically to connect the microscopic description of things, of the universe to the macroscopic description," he added.
Wang is only the third woman to receive the honour since its inception in 1936.
"It means a lot to me and also to my other collaborators," she said.
The 35-year-old is being honoured for work that notably led to a solution. Last year, she solved a mathematical puzzle that had stumped experts for more than a century.
The conjecture was originally posed by Japanese mathematician Soichi Kakeya.
"In 1917, Kakeya asked a very simple question: if you rotate a pencil so as to turn it completely around, what is the smallest area it sweeps out?" Wang explained.
Along with her colleague Josh Zahl, she finally found an answer by analysing what would happen if the pencil was floating in three-dimensional space, rather than on a flat table.
"I am truly delighted for Dr Deng and Dr Wang, and I warmly congratulate both of them," Fields Medal laureate Efim Zelmanov told Xinhua.
"The essential part of both laureates' education was completed in China. Their remarkable achievement is a powerful recognition of China's fundamental and rapidly growing role in the world of mathematics," Zelmanov added.
There are altogether four Fields Medal laureates this year. The other two are John Pardon, a US mathematician at Stony Brook University; and Jacob Tsimerman, a Canadian mathematician at the University of Toronto.
The Fields Medal is a top international mathematics prize awarded every four years to two to four young researchers under the age of 40 in recognition of their outstanding mathematical achievements in existing work and their promise of future achievement. (Xinhua/AFP)
Edited by Cecil Wong
