Hong Wang, X 2010 and an École Polytechnique’s honorary doctorate recipient, is awarded the 2026 Fields Medal

Chinese mathematician Hong Wang was awarded the 2026 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which brings together the global mathematics community every four years.

She is being honored for solving Kakeya's conjecture in three-dimensional space, one of the most difficult and influential problems in modern analysis. This major advancement represents a significant scientific breakthrough, with implications for many areas of contemporary mathematics, including harmonic analysis, geometry, and the theory of partial differential equations.

With this honor, Hong Wang becomes the third woman in history to receive the Fields Medal, following Maryam Mirzakhani (2014) and Maryna Viazovska (2022).

A career marked by excellence, closely tied to École Polytechnique

This distinction holds special significance for École Polytechnique. Hong Wang is a graduate of the École Polytechnique’s Cycle ingénieur polytechnicien program (class of 2010). In recognition of her exceptional scientific achievements and her international influence, the school awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2026.

This award also highlights the excellence of the scientific education provided at the École Polytechnique. Since the School’s founding, mathematics has been one of the pillars of its curriculum and underlies all the scientific disciplines taught to engineering students. They play a vital role in training scientists capable of contributing to both the most fundamental scientific advances and the technological innovations of tomorrow.

Hong Wang’s career fully exemplifies this tradition of scientific excellence and the international ambition championed by École Polytechnique.

Already Exceptional International Recognition

Even before being awarded the Fields Medal, Hong Wang was already considered one of the leading figures of her generation in mathematics.

In early 2026, she received the Sadosky Research Award from the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), which honors the most outstanding contributions by women in the field of analysis.

She had also been honored with several major awards from the international mathematical community, including the Salem Prize and the Ostrowski Prize, two major international awards that recognize exceptional scientific contributions.

Since September 2025, Hong Wang has also become the first female tenured professor at the Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHES). This appointment marked a historic milestone for this world-renowned institution, often described as a “sanctuary” of mathematics due to its high scientific standards, and whose tenured chairs had been held almost exclusively by men for more than sixty years.

A Long Tradition of Fields Medalists at École Polytechnique

For several decades, École Polytechnique has maintained close ties with several Fields Medal laureates.

Laurent Schwartz, the first Frenchman to receive the Fields Medal in 1950, was a professor at École Polytechnique from 1959 to 1980. Pierre-Louis Lions, a 1994 Fields Medalist, taught there as a professor from 1992 to 2016, contributing to the international reputation of mathematics at the school. Alessio Figalli, winner of the 2018 Fields Medal, held the Hadamard Chair at École Polytechnique from October 2008 to August 2009.

The awarding of the Fields Medal to Hong Wang thus adds to a scientific history marked by close ties between École Polytechnique and several of the greatest contemporary mathematicians.

The Fields Medal, the “Nobel Prize of mathematics”

Awarded every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), it honors researchers under the age of forty who have made an exceptional contribution to their field. Often compared to a Nobel Prize in mathematics—for which there is no equivalent in this discipline—it recognizes both major scientific achievements and the potential for future research.

Given its high standards and prestige, the Fields Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the international mathematical community.

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