Mathematicians Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Zimmerman, and Hong Wang have been awarded the 2026 Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious and highly regarded honors in mathematics. Their names were announced today at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The four medalists represent a broad range of mathematical fields, from number theory to mathematical physics. All four had also been widely regarded as leading contenders for the award in previous speculation.

All of the 2026 Fields Medalists are based in North America, although two of them—Deng and Wang—were born and raised in China. They are the second and third Chinese-born mathematicians to receive the Fields Medal. The first was Shing-Tung Yau, who is now at Tsinghua University in Beijing and received the medal in 1982, before either Deng or Wang was born.

Wang is also only the third woman in the 90-year history of the Fields Medal to receive the award, following the late Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014 and Maryna Viazovska in 2022.