Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong, Deng Yu awarded Fields Medals

Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu have clinched the top prize in mathematics, Fields Medals, at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Wang became the third woman to earn the award since it was first established in 1936. Newly-minted Fields medalist Wang was born in Guilin in southwestern Guangxi Province in 1991.

She completed bachelor's degree at Peking University, a master's degree from Paris-Saclay University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before becoming a professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in France and the Courant Institute at New York University.

Wang was recognised for her groundbreaking work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory for resolving the decades-old Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions.

Deng, born in Shenzhen in 1989, received the same distinction for his significant contributions to partial differential equations.

He first studied at Peking University, then transferred to MIT, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University.

He is currently working as a professor at the University of Chicago. The Fields Medal is awarded every four year by the International Mathematical Union to mathematicians under the age of 40.