The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) was held in Philadelphia, USA, from July 23 to 26th, 2026. At the opening ceremony, four professors—Deng Yu, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Wang Hong—were awarded this year’s Fields Medal; among them, Professor Deng Yu and Professor Wang Hong were the first Chinese scholars to ever receive the Fields Medal. Wang Hong was born in 1991, while Deng Yu was born in 1989. Both are alumni of Class 2007 of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University. This marks the first time a Chinese mathematician has received this honor of the Fields Medal. This also marked the first time a Chinese mathematician had received two Fields Awards at the same International Congress of Mathematicians, marking a historic breakthrough in the development of Chinese mathematics. We offer our congratulations to them for this historic achievement.
Deng Yu has been awarded the Fields Medal in 2026 in recognition of his contributions to the field of partial differential equations. These include: the rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation for dilute gases from the dynamics of hard spheres; the derivation of wave dynamics equations from nonlinear dispersion systems; and the probabilistic methods established for nonlinear Schrödinger dynamics.
Deng Yu, Professor at the University of Chicago. He studied at the School of Mathematical Sciences of Peking University during his undergraduate years. Professor Deng Yu’s research focuses primarily on nonlinear dispersion equations, wave equations, fluid dynamics, harmonic analysis, and probabilistic methods in partial differential equations. He and his collaborators derived the Boltzmann equation, which is applicable over long time scales. This achievement represents the central challenge of Hilbert’s sixth problem, which concerns how to rigorously derive the laws governing the motion of macroscopic continuous media from models of the interactions of microscopic particles. In addition, Professor Deng Yu has made a series of profound contributions in areas such as the problem of random initial conditions for dispersion equations. Professor Deng Yu has received the International Mathematical Olympiad Gold Medal (2006), the ICBS Mathematical Frontier Award (2024), the MCA Award (2025), the Mathematics Prize of the Chinese Mathematicians’ Conference (2025). The Oberwolfach Prize (2025), the Antonio Ambrosetti Medal (2025), the Leonard Eisenbud Mathematics and Physics Prize from the American Mathematical Society (2026), the Clay Research Award (2026), and other prestigious awards.
Wang Hong has been awarded the Fields Medal in 2026 to recognize her research contributions to the fields of harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including her work on investigating the local smoothness conjecture for plane wave equations using multiscale and decoupling techniques. Significant progress was also made on the problem of Fourier restriction, the Falconer distance set, the Førsterberg set on a plane, and the three-dimensional hanging valley conjecture.
Wang Hong is a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University and a professor emeritus in mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University. Professor Wang Hong’s research focuses primarily on harmonic analysis, geometric measure theory, and their interdisciplinary areas. She and her collaborators successfully proved the Kakeya conjecture in three-dimensional space. This conjecture explores the minimum amount of space required to rotate an infinitely thin needle within a space, offering a fresh perspective on understanding the profound connection between geometric structures and analytical principles in high-dimensional spaces. In addition, Professor Wang Hong has made significant contributions to the conjectures on local smoothness and the Furstenberg set conjecture. Professor Wang Hong has received prestigious awards such as the Maria Mehrabian New Frontiers Award (2022), the Mathematics Prize of the Chinese Mathematicians’ Conference (2025), the Salem Prize (2025), the New Perspectives in Mathematics Award (2026), and the Clay Research Award (2026).
The Fields Medal is one of the highest international honors in mathematics, awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) to recognize outstanding mathematicians under the age of 40. The award is presented every four years, with 2 to no more than 4 recipients selected each cycle. Due to its exceptional academic reputation and stringent selection criteria, it can also be called “the Nobel Prize in Mathematics”.
