Wang, 35, is an associate professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in the U.S.

She has attracted wide international media attention with her main research areas focusing on harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, fields known for tackling highly abstract and difficult problems. In 2025, Wang and collaborator Joshua Zahl made headlines in the mathematics community by resolving the Kakeya conjecture in three-dimensional space, a problem that had challenged mathematicians for more than a century.

Born in 1991 Guangxi, China, Wang was regarded as a prodigy after entering Peking University at the age of 16. She later earned a master's degree from Paris-Sud University and École Polytechnique in France, before completing her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S.

She is also a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the institute's history. Notably, eight of the institute's previous 13 permanent professors have won the Fields Medal.

2. Jacob Tsimerman

Tsimerman, born in 1988, is a professor at the University of Toronto in Canada and is considered one of the leading number theorists of his generation.

His research focuses mainly on analytic number theory and arithmetic geometry, particularly the study of integer solutions to certain types of polynomial equations. One of his most notable achievements is his contribution to proving the long-standing André-Oort conjecture, a milestone in modern mathematics that links special points with broader geometric structures.

Born in Russia, Tsimerman developed an interest in mathematical puzzles at the age of three. While in high school, he won two gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2003 and 2004. He later studied mathematics at the University of Toronto and received his PhD from Princeton University in the U.S. in 2011.

3. Jack Thorne

Thorne, born in 1987, is a professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. He is best known for his research in algebraic number theory and the Langlands program.

According to the Royal Society, his work includes major results such as proving new cases of the functoriality of holomorphic modular forms, the modularity of elliptic curves over layers of the cyclotomic tower, and the existence of Galois representations associated with regular algebraic automorphic forms.

Thorne studied as an undergraduate at Cambridge before earning his PhD from Harvard University in the U.S. in 2012. At the age of 32, he became one of the youngest fellows ever elected to the Royal Society, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious scientific academies.

(From L) Mathematicians Jacob Tsinerman, Hong Wang and Jack Thorne. Photos by University of Toronto, IHES and Royal Society

4. Javier Fresán

Fresán, born in 1987 and originally from Spain, is currently a professor at the Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche Mathematics Institute at Sorbonne University in France. His research focuses on number theory and algebraic geometry.

He is known for helping solve a problem posed in 1929 by mathematician Carl Siegel concerning the nature of E-functions, which are related to objects in geometry and periods.

Fresán studied at Paris-Nord University and later conducted postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany. He also serves on the editorial boards of two French mathematical journals: Annales scientifiques de l’École normale supérieure and Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici.

5. John Pardon

Pardon, born in 1989, is a professor and permanent member of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University in New York. His research lies at the intersection of geometry and topology.

While still an undergraduate mathematics student at Princeton University, he solved a 30-year-old problem posed by Russian mathematician Mikhail Gromov concerning the distortion of knots. His more recent research focuses on pseudoholomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds.

According to Stony Brook University, Pardon graduated as valedictorian in 2011 and later earned his PhD from Stanford University in 2015. He has also taught at both Stanford and Princeton.

6. Sam Raskin

Raskin is a leading scholar in geometric representation theory and currently serves as a professor in the mathematics department at Yale University in the U.S. His research focuses on the geometric Langlands program.

In late 2024, Raskin and collaborators published a manuscript of more than 900 pages resolving a major part of the geometric Langlands program. The program is often described as the "Rosetta Stone of mathematics" because it connects seemingly unrelated fields such as algebra and quantum physics.

Raskin earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and completed his PhD at Harvard University in 2014.

The Fields Medal is awarded to up to four mathematicians under the age of 40 every four years. The selection committee is appointed by the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). Winners receive a 14-carat gold medal bearing the image of Archimedes and a cash prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars (US$11,060).

This year’s award ceremony will take place during the opening session of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in July 2026 in Philadelphia, U.S.