On July 23, the Fields Medal—often called the “Nobel Prize” of mathematics—was officially announced. The four winners are John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Chinese mathematicians Yu Deng and Hong Wang.
Wang Hong is currently a tenured professor in mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France.
After the results were revealed, French President Emmanuel Macron personally called Wang Hong to congratulate her.
“Congratulations, Wang Hong, Fields Medalist!” Macron posted on social media platform X. He noted that Wang Hong was educated in French universities and is now a professor at IHES, saying she “embodies the excellence of our research and education.”
A video shows Macron praising Wang Hong with “Well done!” and saying that he and all French scholars feel “immensely proud and excited.”
He also said that Wang Hong’s achievement “is a fantastic role model for young girls.”
Screenshot from the video
Wang Hong, born in 1991 in Guilin, Guangxi, entered Peking University’s School of Earth and Space Sciences at age 16, and transferred to the School of Mathematical Sciences a year later.
In February 2025, she and Joshua Zahl published a 127-page paper that finally solved the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture—a century-old problem about “the smallest area a needle sweeps when rotating in three-dimensional space.” Rice University mathematician Nets Katz called the achievement “once in a century.”
She is now a tenured professor in mathematics at IHES, making her the first Chinese and first Asian tenured professor in the institute’s history. Among the previous 13 tenured mathematics professors at IHES, eight have won the Fields Medal.
Wang Hong, profile photo
Yu Deng, born in 1989 in Shenzhen, won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2006. He was recommended for admission to Peking University’s math department, then transferred to MIT, and earned his PhD from Princeton.
Together with collaborators, he used groundbreaking methods to crack a narrow version of Hilbert’s Sixth Problem—one of 23 problems posed by David Hilbert in 1900. It’s the first substantial breakthrough in 125 years. The work builds a solid mathematical bridge between the microscopic world of particles and the macroscopic world of fluids.
Prediction markets once gave Wang Hong an over 80% probability of winning the medal.
Chinese mathematicians Yu Deng and Wang Hong both made the list. This marks the first time mathematicians of Chinese nationality have won the Fields Medal.
This milestone is the result of three factors coming together: national investment, a improving academic ecosystem, and a mature talent pipeline. It’s not an accidental “genius explosion,” but the fruit of a systematic effort that has been sustained for two decades, finally ripening in 2026.