For the first time, a Chinese woman has been awarded the world’s most prestigious mathematics prize, the Fields Medal, bringing the total count of Chinese-born medalists to three, as two mathematicians from the country clinched medals this year.

Often referred to as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, Fields Medals are awarded every four years to between two and four mathematicians under 40, recognizing both achievement and potential.

This year marks only the third time a woman has ever won the coveted award in its 90-year history.

The recipients, whose medals were presented at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia on Thursday, included Chinese mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng, American John Pardon and Canadian Jacob Tsimerman.

“All four mathematicians have made tremendous contributions to their respective fields,” Ulrike Tillmann, vice-president and incoming president of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the institution responsible for organizing the awards, told NPR.

“It’s also wonderful to see another woman winning the Medal. We should have the feeling that it has become a normal thing that women contribute to their fields at the highest level, including the Fields Medal,” she added.

Top left to right: Jacob Tsimerman, Wang Hong; Bottom left to right: John Pardon., Yu Deng

Simons Foundation

hide caption

toggle caption

Simons Foundation

First time two Chinese scholars simultaneously won the prize

Originally from China’s mountainous Guilin City, Hong Wang is the first Chinese woman to ever receive the medal. In a video released by the IMU she recalls solving her first math problem as a child. “I felt quite happy when I figured out the answer, I feel like I have a clearer understanding of the subject” she said.

Wang, who researches at both NYU and France’s Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, shot to fame after resolving a century-old problem known as the Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions, together with University of British Columbia’s Joshua Zahl.

“Solving this problem has opened the door for a host of theorems and conjectures in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, geometric measure theory and other fields,” the IMU said in a statement.