Chinese Mathematicians Win Fields Medal in Historic First
For the first time in history, Chinese nationals have won the Fields Medal, widely regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. In an extraordinary double achievement, mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu received the prestigious award at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Philadelphia on July 23, 2026, as reported by People’s Daily.
A Historic Milestone
The Fields Medal, awarded every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 with a maximum of four recipients per cycle, has long eluded Chinese nationals. Until this year, the only mathematicians of Chinese heritage to win were Shing-Tung Yau (1982) and Terence Tao (2006). The simultaneous recognition of two mathematicians from the same country breaks a record previously held only by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia.
Both winners are alumni of Peking University’s School of Mathematical Sciences, class of 2007 — a cohort that Peking University Dean Liu Ruochuan has described as the “Platinum Generation” of PKU mathematics, according to China Youth Daily.
The Laureates
Wang Hong, born in 1991 in Guangxi province, is a researcher at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France. She is the third female mathematician to win the Fields Medal, following Maryam Mirzakhani (2014) and Maryna Viazovska (2022). Her path to mathematics was unconventional — she entered Peking University at age 16 through the gaokao exam, initially studying Earth and Space Sciences before transferring to mathematics in her sophomore year.
Deng Yu, born in 1989 in Shenzhen, is a professor at the University of Chicago. His trajectory followed the elite competition route: he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2006, earning him a direct recommendation to Peking University. He later transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during his undergraduate studies, as detailed in a CCTV News report.
Breakthrough Contributions
Wang Hong’s most celebrated achievement is her proof of the three-dimensional Kakeya Conjecture, a problem that had remained unsolved for over a century. Collaborating with Joshua Zahl, she published a 127-page preprint in 2025 that resolved this fundamental question in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. She also made breakthroughs on the two-dimensional Falconer distance problem and completely solved the Furstenberg set conjecture.
Deng Yu, working with collaborators Han Yue and Ma Xiao, achieved a key breakthrough on Hilbert’s Sixth Problem — a 125-year-old challenge. Their work established a rigorous derivation chain from Newtonian hard-sphere dynamics to the Boltzmann equation and onward to the Navier-Stokes equations, effectively building a bridge between three fundamental levels of physical description. Deng Yu specializes in partial differential equations, particularly their probabilistic theory.
A CCTV in-depth feature noted that the two mathematicians, despite their different backgrounds, share a deep passion for mathematics and the courage to explore uncharted territory — a quality Fields Medalist Shing-Tung Yau praised as their most valuable attribute.
Two Paths to the Summit
The contrasting backgrounds of Wang and Deng highlight the diversity of China’s talent cultivation system. Deng Yu represents the elite Olympiad pipeline that China has long dominated internationally. Wang Hong, growing up in a small town in Guangxi without competition training, represents the social mobility enabled by China’s standardized gaokao examination system.
Both completed their doctoral training and prize-winning research at top institutions outside China — Deng at the University of Chicago and Wang at IHES in France. This has sparked discussion in Chinese media about what analysts call the “last mile” problem: the need for a domestic research ecosystem capable of supporting the full chain of world-class mathematical training.
Implications for China’s Research Ambitions
China has dramatically increased its basic research funding from 613 billion RMB in 2014 to approximately 2,800 billion RMB in 2025 — a more than fourfold increase. However, basic research still accounts for only 7.08% of total R&D spending, below the 12–23% range typical of developed countries.
The Fields Medal double win validates China’s investment in mathematics education and its ability to identify and nurture talent from diverse backgrounds. Yet it also underscores the ongoing challenge of building a domestic ecosystem where top researchers can produce Nobel-level work without leaving the country.
What’s Next
The achievement has resonated deeply in Chinese society, reflecting the unique cultural status of mathematics in the country. As Deng Yu told China Youth Daily: “Mathematics is a field whose boundaries are constantly expanding. There are still many important unsolved problems within it. Being able to participate in this process feels truly wonderful.”
The question now facing China’s scientific establishment is whether it can build the institutional structures to keep — and attract — talent of this caliber for the next generation of breakthroughs.