Overview
- The International Mathematical Union formally awarded the 2026 Fields Medals on Thursday at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia to Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman and Hong Wang.
- Yu Deng was cited for deriving the Boltzmann equation from Newtonian particle dynamics, a major step on Hilbert’s sixth problem about placing physics on a firm mathematical footing.
- Hong Wang, working with Joshua Zahl, received recognition for a proof of the three‑dimensional Kakeya conjecture and is the youngest of this year’s winners and the third woman ever to win a Fields Medal.
- John Pardon was honored for key advances in geometry and topology, including work on knot distortion tied to a conjecture of Gromov, and Jacob Tsimerman was recognized for a proof of the André–Oort conjecture that does not rely on the Riemann hypothesis.
- The awards followed two organizational issues: a machine‑readable leak of winners on the conference website that was removed before the ceremony, and a petition with withdrawals by several national societies over U.S. hosting and visa concerns, neither of which stopped the prize announcements or their wide international attention.