Chinese mathematicians Deng Yu and Wang Hong received the Fields Medals at the opening ceremony of the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia on Thursday, marking the first time Chinese mathematicians have won the award.
Deng Yu was recognized for groundbreaking work in partial differential equations and fluid mechanics. In 2024 and 2025, he and collaborators published papers that rigorously derived the complete mathematical link between microscopic particle systems and the macroscopic Boltzmann equation, resolving a core branch of Hilbert's sixth problem.
Wang Hong was honored for her contributions to harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. In February 2025, she and Joshua Zahl published a paper proving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture, solving a problem that had puzzled mathematicians for over 100 years. She also resolved the exact theorem for the two-dimensional Falconer distance problem and the Furstenberg set conjecture.
Both graduated as undergraduates from Peking University. Deng, born in 1989, studied at MIT and earned his PhD from Princeton University in 2015. Wang, born in 1991, entered Peking University at age 16 and received her PhD from MIT in 2019. She is the third woman and first from China to receive the prize.
Mathematician Shing-Tung Yau described their achievements as a milestone. Zhejiang University professor Cai Tianxin said China's research standards have caught up with the West.
