{"id":938,"date":"2026-07-23T21:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/fields-medal-2026-winners-include-mathematician-hong-wang-the-third-woman-to-ever-win-in-the-awards-90-year-history\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:19:23","slug":"fields-medal-2026-winners-include-mathematician-hong-wang-the-third-woman-to-ever-win-in-the-awards-90-year-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/fields-medal-2026-winners-include-mathematician-hong-wang-the-third-woman-to-ever-win-in-the-awards-90-year-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Fields Medal 2026 winners include mathematician Hong Wang \u2014 the third woman to ever win in the award's 90-year history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The 2026 Fields Medal, one of the world\u2019s most prestigious mathematics prizes, has just been awarded to four pioneering young researchers \u2014 including mathematician Hong Wang,<\/u><\/a> the third woman ever to win the prize in the 90 years since the award was established. <\/p>\n

The Fields Medal is an award presented every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 for their outstanding discoveries. The International Mathematical Union<\/u><\/a> announced<\/u><\/a> Thursday (July 23) that Wang, a professor at New York University, is among the four recipients of the 2026 medal for her work on a decades-old conjecture about how needles move in 3D spaces. . <\/p>\n

The 2026 Fields Medal winners also include Yu Deng<\/u><\/a> of the University of Chicago, who was recognized for connecting microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of gases; John Pardon<\/u><\/a> of Stony Brook University, whose work solved major problems in topology and geometry; and Jacob Tsimerman<\/u><\/a> of the University of Toronto, who developed powerful new techniques in algebraic geometry that have advanced progress on longstanding mathematical puzzles.<\/p>\n

Wang joins an exceptionally small group of women to receive the Fields Medal. Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani <\/u><\/a>was the first, in 2014, followed by Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska<\/u><\/a> in 2022. No woman received the award at all in the nearly 80 years before Mirzakhani’s win.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"Four<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

The four 2026 Fields Medal honorees. From left to right: Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Hong Wang. <\/span>(Image credit: ERIN BLEWETT via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wang was recognized for her work on the Kakeya conjecture<\/u><\/a>, a problem that asks how little space is needed to rotate a needle so that it points in every possible direction in three dimensions. Mathematicians had chased a solution for roughly 50 years. <\/p>\n

\n
Related stories<\/div>\n
\n

\n