2026 Fields Medallists and IMU prize winners announced
The 2026 Fields Medals and other major prizes of the International Mathematical Union were awarded at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia on 23 July. The European Mathematical Society warmly congratulates all the laureates.
The European Mathematical Society warmly congratulates the recipients of the Fields Medals and the other prizes awarded by the International Mathematical Union at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians 2026 in Philadelphia on 23 July.
Fields Medals
The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to between two and four mathematicians in recognition of outstanding mathematical achievement and the promise of future achievement.
The 2026 Fields Medals were awarded to:
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Yu Deng, for his work on partial differential equations, including the rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation from hard-sphere dynamics, the derivation of wave kinetic equations from nonlinear dispersive systems, and probabilistic approaches to nonlinear Schrödinger dynamics.
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John Pardon, for his achievements in symplectic geometry, including new approaches to virtual fundamental cycles, Fukaya categories and the counting of holomorphic curves, as well as contributions to geometry and topology, including group actions on three-dimensional manifolds and knot theory.
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Jacob Tsimerman, for establishing o-minimality as a fundamental method in arithmetic and complex algebraic geometry, and for his central role in resolving major conjectures, including the André–Oort conjecture for Siegel modular varieties and Griffiths’ conjecture on the algebraicity of images of period mappings.
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Hong Wang, for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including major advances concerning Fourier restriction, local smoothing, Falconer distance sets, Furstenberg sets and the Kakeya problem in three dimensions.
Hong Wang is the third woman to receive a Fields Medal, following Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014 and Maryna Viazovska in 2022.
From left: Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman and Hong Wang. Image credit: Simons Foundation.
IMU Abacus Medal
Shayan Oveis Gharan. Image credit: Simons Foundation.
The 2026 IMU Abacus Medal was awarded to Shayan Oveis Gharan for his landmark contributions to the theory and analysis of algorithms.
The IMU Abacus Medal recognises distinguished achievements in the mathematical aspects of information science.
Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize
Yurii Nesterov. Image credit: Simons Foundation.
The 2026 Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize was awarded to Yurii Nesterov for his groundbreaking work in mathematical optimisation, which has provided theoretical and algorithmic foundations for modern computational optimisation.
The Gauss Prize recognises outstanding mathematical contributions that have found significant applications outside mathematics.
Chern Medal Award
Graeme Segal. Image credit: Simons Foundation.
The 2026 Chern Medal Award was presented to Graeme Segal for his visionary mathematical insights and their enduring influence across topology, mathematical physics, representation theory and category theory.
The Chern Medal Award honours an individual whose accomplishments merit the highest level of recognition for outstanding achievements in mathematics.
Leelavati Prize
Hannah Fry. Image credit: Simons Foundation.
The 2026 Leelavati Prize was awarded to Hannah Fry, one of the foremost international ambassadors for mathematical thinking, in recognition of her outstanding work communicating mathematics to audiences around the world.
The Leelavati Prize recognises outstanding contributions to increasing public awareness of mathematics as an intellectual discipline and of its role in society.
Watch the ceremony and learn more about the laureates
The ICM 2026 opening ceremony, during which the medals and prizes were presented, is available to watch on the Simons Foundation YouTube channel.
Short video introductions to the 2026 Fields Medallists and the other IMU prize winners are collected in the IMU medal and prize winners playlist.
The laudatios for the medal and prize winners and the medal winners press conference are also available to watch on the Simons Foundation YouTube channel.
The International Congress of Mathematicians takes place in Philadelphia from 23 to 30 July 2026. Further information about the laureates and their work is available from the International Mathematical Union.
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