Shenzhen-based AI mathematician Yurii Nesterov wins top prize in applied maths

When Russian-born Belgian mathematician Yurii Nesterov reached retirement age in 2023, he found himself at the centre of a technological storm. The accelerated gradient algorithm he derived with pen and paper 40 years ago had become the engine driving the rapid advancement of modern artificial intelligence (AI). Faced with the full explosion of the AI age, the academic – hailed as the “master of international algorithm design” – wanted to continue his groundbreaking work, saying: “It is crazy to stop right now.” In June, Nesterov, now 70, embarked on a new full-time career in southern China’s tech hubs, joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen) and the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute (SLAI) as a professor at the Centre for AI Theoretical Foundation and Systems. Almost immediately, the scholar won the highest honour in the global applied mathematics community – the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize – which he received at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) ceremony in Philadelphia on July 23. “The main feature of China today is the fast and progressive development,” Nesterov said. “This atmosphere perfectly fits the growing ambitions of a young population. In such dynamic cities as Shenzhen, you really feel that tomorrow will be different from today. It is very pleasant to participate in this activity, even for people of my age.” The Gauss Prize is named after German academic Carl Friedrich Gauss and is one of the top academic honours in the international mathematics community, alongside the Fields Medal and the Chern Medal. “Professor Nesterov is one of the world’s most renowned algorithm design masters,” Luo Zhiquan, vice-president of CUHK-Shenzhen, said in an interview with Shenzhen TV on July 29. “This April, he told me that he could spend more time and work full-time in Shenzhen. We quickly arranged to jointly recruit him with CUHK-Shenzhen and SLAI, finally offering him a full-time position in Shenzhen.” Nesterov said that when he was offered the role, “it was very natural for me to accept it”. Unlike mathematics awards that focus on pure theoretical research, the Gauss Prize emphasises recognising the practical application and social impact of mathematical achievements. “I started my journey in 1977. Moscow at that time was a remarkable place. The best minds of a huge country [the former Soviet Union] of 300 million people were in one city,” he said in the award’s promotional video. Nesterov earned his master’s from the computational mathematics department at Moscow State University and from 1977 to 1992, he was a researcher at the Central Institute of Mathematics and Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fifteen years later, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he arrived in Belgium at the Centre for Operations Research and Econometrics at the Catholic University of Leuven. “I have worked at this university for 30 years already and I have had a lot of support from the administration and my colleagues. All my main results were obtained here,” he said. Nesterov is a world-leading researcher in optimisation theory. The accelerated gradient method he proposed in 1983, along with other research findings, has become a foundation for modern machine learning and optimisation algorithms, profoundly influencing the development of modern mathematics, computer science and AI. This algorithm represents the theoretical ceiling that first-order algorithms can achieve; no similar algorithm can outperform it in speed. In 1994, he co-developed the interior-point method for convex optimisation with fellow Russian mathematician Arkadi Nemirovski. The two used a refined approach to prove that, regardless of the problem size, the solution can always be found within a polynomial number of steps. This method proves that industrial-scale optimal planning has a reliable computational upper bound, laying the theoretical foundation for AI engineering constraint optimisation. So this is a moment when artificial intelligence gives us a lot of new applications and many new challenges, and I still want to participate a little bit in all of that Yurii Nesterov, professor In 2023, Nesterov retired in Belgium. “I retired at a very bad moment, I would say,” he shared in the promotional video played at the ICM award ceremony. “So this is a moment when artificial intelligence gives us a lot of new applications and many new challenges, and I still want to participate a little bit in all of that.” He joined the school of data science at CUHK-Shenzhen, as a distinguished adjunct professor in the first half of 2024 before transitioning to his full-time role. In addition to the Gauss Prize, Nesterov was awarded the 2026 NAAI Academy Award by the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI) earlier this year. This award is the highest honour established by the NAAI of the United States, intended to recognise outstanding scientists who have made historic contributions to the theoretical framework and core scientific issues of AI. During the ICM ceremony, China’s Wang Hong and Deng Yu also received the Fields Medal, which is the highest global award in mathematics. Nesterov said that awarding the Fields Medal to both researchers was a “strong confirmation of the level of Chinese mathematics”. “This achievement significantly increases the scientific reputation of China and will intensify its collaboration with the leading researchers from abroad,” he added.

Shenzhen-based AI mathematician Yurii Nesterov wins top prize in applied maths

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Crazy to stop right now’: researcher rejects retirement to build on his 40-year legacy during the golden age of artificial intelligence

‘Crazy to stop right now’: researcher rejects retirement to build on his 40-year legacy during the golden age of artificial intelligence