(Yicai) July 24 -- Wang Hong and Deng Yu, two Chinese mathematicians under 40 years old, were awarded the 2026 Fields Medal, also known as the ‘Nobel Prize in Mathematics.’

The International Congress of Mathematicians, which is held every four years, yesterday announced Wang, professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques and New York University, and Deng, professor at the University of Chicago, as the winners of the 2026 Fields Medal.

This is the first time in history that the award has been given to two young mathematicians from the same country and grade. Deng and Wang were classmates who entered Peking University’s School of Mathematical Sciences in 2007‌.

In February 2025, Wang and her colleagues published a 127-page paper proclaiming the proof of the Kakeya Conjecture, which had plagued the mathematical community for centuries. That year, Deng made a crucial breakthrough in Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, which had perplexed the mathematical community for 125 years, completing the key proof from the microscopic particle system to the Boltzmann equation for the first time.

With their research achievements, Wang and Deng also won the gold medal at the 10th International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians in January. Shing-Tung Yau, the first Chinese winner of the Fields Medal and chairman of the congress, told Yicai then that China will become a mathematical powerhouse in the next five to 10 years.

Editor: Futura Costaglione