NYU Professor Hong Wang Awarded Fields Medal
New York University Professor Hong Wang has received a Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics. She was recognized for resolving the three-dimensional Kakeya set conjecture.
New York University Professor Hong Wang has been awarded a Fields Medal, the highest honor in the field of mathematics, the International Mathematical Union announced on July 23, 2026.
Wang, a Silver Professor of Mathematics at NYU's Courant Institute, was recognized for resolving a long-standing problem in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. Her work addressed the three-dimensional Kakeya set conjecture, which concerns the minimum size of a set that can contain a unit-length line segment in every orientation.
Wang is the first NYU faculty member to receive a Fields Medal, awarded every four years to mathematicians under 40. She is only the third woman to win the prize. She also holds a professorship at France's Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES).
The award highlights Wang's significant contributions to mathematics and aligns with NYU's ongoing initiative to advance science and technology, which includes faculty recruitment and investment in computational resources.