Four mathematicians win 2026 Fields Medals at ICM in Philadelphia

The International Mathematical Union announced the recipients of the 2026 Fields Medals on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, honoring four mathematicians whose work spans harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, symplectic geometry and number theory.Simons Foundation+1

The medals went to Hong Wang of New York University and France's Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques; Yu Deng of the University of Chicago; John Pardon of Stony Brook University; and Jacob Tsimerman of the University of Toronto. Each recipient received a gold medal bearing the likeness of Archimedes and 15,000 Canadian dollars.Quanta Magazine

A Historic Ceremony

Wang, 35, becomes only the third woman to receive the Fields Medal in its 90-year history, following Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014 and Maryna Viazovska in 2022. She and Deng are both alumni of Peking University's class of 2007, making this the first time two Chinese nationals have won the medal in the same ceremony. Only four other countries — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Russia — have previously produced two Fields laureates in a single year.CNRS Le journal+1

Wang was cited for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including her resolution of the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture with collaborator Joshua Zahl — a century-old problem asking how much space is needed to rotate a needle so it points in every direction. Deng was recognized for his contributions to partial differential equations, including a rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation from hard-sphere dynamics, advancing one of David Hilbert's famous problems from 1900.Quanta Magazine+1

The Other Laureates

Pardon was honored for breakthroughs in symplectic geometry, including his proof of the 20-year-old MNOP conjecture showing that two different methods of counting curves on Calabi-Yau 3-folds are equivalent. Tsimerman, a Simons Investigator, was cited for extending the scope of o-minimal techniques within arithmetic and algebraic geometry, work deeply connected to the Hodge conjecture, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems.Quanta Magazine

"The four medalists exemplify the depth, originality and vitality of contemporary mathematics," said IMU president Hiraku Nakajima.Quanta Magazine

An Unusual Prelude

The announcement was preceded by an unusual leak on July 13, when a coding error in the ICM 2026 website exposed hidden schedule entries listing the four winners' names in the site's API data. The website was briefly taken offline and the hidden entries removed, but screenshots had already circulated widely online. The ICM proceeded with the formal ceremony as planned.youtube+3

The congress, running through July 30, is the first ICM held in the United States since 1986.Simons Foundation+1