The 2026 Fields Medal, regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, was awarded to Yu Deng, Jacob Tsimerman, John Pardon and Hong Wang, it was announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) on July 23.
It is the first time two mathematicians of Chinese descent have won the medal simultaneously, and the third time a woman has been honored.
All four winners work in North America.
(From L) A screenshot from Simons Foundation's YouTube livestream shows Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Wang Hong receiving the 2026 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, U.S., July 23, 2026.
Deng, 37, a professor at the University of Chicago in the U.S., was recognized for his contributions to partial differential equations, including the rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation from hard-sphere dynamics for dilute gases, the derivation of wave kinetic equations from nonlinear dispersive systems, and probabilistic approaches to nonlinear Schrödinger dynamics.
