Chinese mathematicians win Fields Medal for first time
What's the story
Chinese mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng have made history by winning the prestigious Fields Medal, often considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics. They are the first Chinese to win this honor. The duo solved problems that had puzzled mathematicians for over a century. The Fields Medal was awarded in the United States, amid growing challenges from artificial intelligence to human computations.
Mathematical breakthrough
Wang's groundbreaking work on Kakeya conjecture
Wang, a 35-year-old mathematician who now teaches in the United States and France, won the Fields Medal for her work on a problem posed by Japanese mathematician Soichi Kakeya in 1917.
The problem asked what is the smallest area a pencil sweeps out when rotated completely around.
Wang and her colleague Josh Zahl solved this by assuming the pencil was floating in three-dimensional space.
Problem solved
Deng's solution to Hilbert's Sixth Problem
Deng, a 37-year-old mathematics professor at the University of Chicago, was awarded the Fields Medal for his solution to Hilbert's Sixth Problem.
This problem, posed by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900, asked how the behavior of a whole can be calculated based on individual particles' movement.
Deng solved it by studying gas behavior.
Award details
About the Fields Medal
The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to mathematicians under 40 who have made outstanding contributions to the field.
Wang and Deng were among four winners this year, each receiving 15,000 Canadian dollars (approximately $10,500 or £8,000).
The other two winners were John Pardon from the United States and Jacon Tsimerman from Canada.
Academic career
Wang's journey in mathematics
Wang was born in 1991 in Guilin, China. She entered Peking University at age 16 and later graduated and studied abroad at prestigious institutions like MIT.
Currently, she is a professor at New York University and a permanent professor at France's Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES).
French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated her on receiving the medal, calling her "the excellence of our research."
Academic journey
Deng's path to success
Deng started participating in mathematics competitions in primary school. He entered Peking University the same year as Wang but transferred to MIT two years later.
He earned his doctorate from Princeton University and has been teaching at the University of Chicago since 2024.