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Zhang Tong

Ling Xin

For the first time, China has produced Fields Medal winners educated on its own soil – and two at once.
Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu took the honour, alongside John Pardon and Jacob Tsimerman.
The Fields Medal is the top honour for young mathematicians under 40 years of age. The medals, along with a modest cash prize, were given out on Thursday at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Philadelphia.
The prestigious medal, often called the “Nobel Prize of mathematics”, has been awarded since 1936, but this is the first time a Chinese national has won it.
It is also the first time that two mathematicians who completed their undergraduate training in mainland China have shared the prize in the same year.
With this, China becomes the fifth country – after the United States, France, Britain and Russia – to produce two Fields laureates in a single ceremony, and the first Asian nation to do so.
Only two other ethnic Chinese mathematicians have won the Fields Medal: Shing-Tung Yau in 1982 and Terence Tao in 2006, but neither held Chinese citizenship at the time. China’s mathematics community had been waiting for this moment for decades.
“I am very happy,” Yau, who returned to China full-time in 2023 to help nurture young mathematical talent, told Chinese media.
He said he had long hoped that at least one Chinese mathematician would win the prize, but was especially delighted that two outstanding young mathematicians received it this year.
Wang and Deng were both admitted to Peking University in 2007. Now they stand together on the world’s highest stage for mathematicians.

Deng was honoured for work in partial differential equations, and connecting fundamental laws of physics to equations describing the behaviour of gases and fluids. Yau said the research addressed a question first raised by German mathematician David Hilbert more than a century ago and pursued by generations of leading mathematicians.
Wang won for major advances in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including her work on the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture. Yau described her efforts with a collaborator as a “landmark contribution”, saying the problem had evaded solution for decades.
The twin victories showed that China could produce world-class mathematical talent, Yau said. He added that the next milestone would be to nurture Fields Medallists who receive their full training in China and make their most important discoveries there.
He said he had “repeatedly invited” Wang and Deng to return to teach in China in the hope of helping train the next generation.
Wang Hong: solving the 3D Kakeya conjecture
During a press conference after the announcement, Wang said the award meant a great deal to her and her collaborators.
She recalled first hearing about the Fields Medal as a high school student, reading in a mathematics magazine about Terence Tao’s 2006 win. “I was quite excited [then],” she said. “So I’m also excited today.”
Born in 1991 in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Wang Hong enrolled at Peking University at just 16 – first in the School of Earth and Space Sciences, then transferring a year later to the highly competitive mathematics programme.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2011. After that, she went to France to study at Ecole Polytechnique and Paris-Sud University, obtaining both an engineering degree and a master’s degree in mathematics.
She then moved to the US to earn her PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Larry Guth, winner of the 2016 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize for his solutions to long-standing problems in different branches of mathematics. She completed her doctorate in 2019.
After postdoctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey, she held a faculty position at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She is now a professor at New York University’s Courant Institute as well as a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) in France.
She is recognised for her breakthrough contributions to harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory.
In 2025, she and collaborator Joshua Zahl published a 127‑page paper proving the three‑dimensional Kakeya conjecture – a problem that had baffled mathematicians for over a century.
Their work provides a fresh analytical framework for signal processing applications such as radar and remote sensing.
She has also received the Salem Prize and the Clay Research Award for this achievement. She is the third woman ever to win the Fields Medal.
Wang said she believed China was already producing world-class mathematical research.
She pointed to collaborators who had recently returned to China, including Joshua Zahl, who joined Nankai University’s Chern Institute of Mathematics last year. “I believe they will just continue making an impact,” she said.


Deng Yu: cracking Hilbert’s sixth problem
During the press conference, Deng called the award “a really great honour”.
Deng recalled that while reading a novel he received an email from the president of the International Mathematical Union in January requesting a Zoom meeting. Having heard that Fields Medal recipients were typically notified around that time, he suspected what it meant.
“I thought that was it,” he said. “So then I just kept reading the novel.”
Born in 1989 in Shenzhen, Deng showed early mathematical talent. In 2006, he won a gold medal at the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad with a perfect score. That same year, he took the gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
He was admitted to Peking University without entrance exams in 2007, but transferred to MIT in 2009, earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 2011.
He completed his PhD at Princeton University in 2015 under Alexandru Ionescu, whose work relates to the long-term dynamics of solutions of partial differential equations.
After a postdoctoral appointment at NYU’s Courant Institute and a faculty position at the University of Southern California, he became a professor at the University of Chicago in 2024.
Deng is recognised for his pioneering work in partial differential equations, fluid dynamics and probabilistic analysis.
Last year, together with Zaher Hani and Xiao Ma, Deng solved a narrow version of Hilbert’s sixth problem – one of 23 challenges posed by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900.
Ionescu, Deng’s Princeton adviser, said the work would “almost certainly win a Fields Medal”.
In 2021, Deng received the Sloan Research Fellowship, awarded to outstanding early-career researchers.




China narrows the gap in mathematics
The Fields Medal winners highlight the broader trend of China’s growing prominence in mathematics.
“Looking at just this year’s ICM invited speakers, there are 12 Peking University undergraduate alumni,” said Chinese mathematician Lin Huaxin in an interview with National Business Daily earlier this month.
“That shows PKU’s mathematical level has climbed more than one notch over the past three or four decades.”
“While the United States still holds a strong lead globally, China is narrowing the gap, and one important sign is that China is attracting mathematicians from around the world,” Lin added.
Lin himself left his tenured position at the University of Oregon at the end of 2024 to return to China full‑time, joining the Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
Zahl, Wang’s collaborator, accepted an invitation from Chinese mathematician Guo Shaoming to join Nankai University full-time last year.
Before Thursday’s official announcement, many speculated that both Wang and Deng would win the Fields Medal.
Rumours surfaced on July 14 after their names were apparently leaked due to a coding error on the ICM website, though the organisation has not commented on the matter.
On the eve of the ceremony, at an International Mathematical Union gathering in New York, Glasgow beat Hong Kong and Tokyo to become the host of ICM 2030.


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Fields Medal win: Wang Hong, Deng Yu are first Chinese nationals to score top maths honour

Chinese nationals Deng Yu (left) and Wang Hong (right) have won the Fields Medal, often called the “Nobel Prize of mathematics”. Photo: Handout

The Fields Medal is the top honour for young mathematicians under 40 years of age. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong loses 2030 maths congress to Glasgow. Does Asia need a stronger voice?

Glasgow will host the 2030 International Congress of Mathematicians. Illustration: Shutterstock

Professor Shing-Tung Yau says Asia needs its own regional maths body. Photo: Edmond So

Award-winning chemist Zhang Wei leaves US to join China’s Great Bay University

Zhang Wei’s research covers topics from two-dimensional materials and porous organic materials, to sustainable and recyclable polymers, molecular separation and carbon capture. Photo:  Handout

Zhang Wei (left) was presented with an appointment letter by GBU president Tian Gang on July 2. Photo: Handout

News

China

Two former Peking University classmates now stand together on the world’s highest stage for mathematicians


Two former Peking University classmates now stand together on the world’s highest stage for mathematicians.


Fields Medal win: Wang Hong, Deng Yu are first Chinese nationals to score top maths honour

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Two former Peking University classmates now stand together on the world’s highest stage for mathematicians

Two former Peking University classmates now stand together on the world’s highest stage for mathematicians