Hong Wang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hong Wang
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| 王虹 | |
Wang in 2026
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| Born |
Wang Hong
1991 (age 34–35) Guilin, Guangxi, China
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| Education |
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| Known for | Solving the Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions |
| Awards | Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize (2022) Salem Prize (2025) Ostrowski Prize (2025) Sadosky Prize (2026) Clay Research Award (2026) New Horizons in Mathematics Prize (2026) Fields Medal (2026) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | A restriction estimate in  (2019) |
| Doctoral advisor | Larry Guth |
Hong Wang (born in 1991) is a brilliant mathematician from China. She is famous for her work in advanced math topics like Fourier analysis and geometric measure theory. In 2026, she received the prestigious Fields Medal, which is like the Nobel Prize for mathematics! She earned this award for solving some very tough math problems, including the Kakeya conjecture. Hong Wang made history as the third woman and the first Chinese woman ever to win the Fields Medal.
Contents
Meet Hong Wang: A Math Star!
Growing Up and Learning
Hong Wang was born in 1991 in Guilin, a city in Guangxi, China. Both of her parents were teachers, and her father taught mathematics. From a young age, around six years old, she became fascinated with a type of math called incidence geometry. She was so smart that she even skipped two grades in primary school!
In 2004, Hong Wang started high school at Guilin High School. When she was just 16, in 2007, she took a very important exam called the Gaokao in China. She did so well that she got into Peking University early! She first studied earth sciences but soon realized her true passion was mathematics, so she changed her major.
She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, from Peking University in 2011. After that, she moved to France for more advanced studies. In 2014, she earned two more degrees: an engineer's degree from École polytechnique and a Master of Science from Paris-Sud University. Later, in 2019, she completed her highest degree, a Ph.D. in mathematics, from the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Her teacher and mentor during her Ph.D. was Larry Guth.
Her Amazing Career Journey
After finishing her Ph.D. in 2019, Hong Wang continued her research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, from 2019 to 2021. This is a special place where top scientists and mathematicians work on big ideas.
From 2021 to 2023, she taught mathematics as an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2023, she moved to New York University (NYU) to become an associate professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, a very well-known math center.
By September 2025, she became a full professor at NYU. At the same time, she also became a permanent professor at the Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHES) in France. In April 2026, NYU honored her by naming her a Silver Professor of Mathematics, which is a special teaching position.
Solving Big Math Puzzles
Hong Wang's research focuses on advanced math areas like harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. She loves to tackle "Kakeya-type problems," which are complex puzzles that link different parts of mathematics, such as geometry, equations, and number theory.
Even when she was a Ph.D. student, she found new ways to approach the Fourier restriction problem and helped solve the Falconer distance problem. In 2019, working with Larry Guth and Ruixiang Zhang, she helped prove a part of the local smoothing conjecture. Later, in 2023, she and Kevin Ren solved another puzzle called the two-dimensional Furstenberg set conjecture.
The Kakeya Conjecture Explained
One of Hong Wang's most famous achievements was solving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture with her colleague, Joshua Zahl. Imagine a needle that can be rotated in every possible direction. A Kakeya set is the smallest possible region where you can completely turn this needle around. The Kakeya conjecture asks how "big" or "thick" this region must be.
In 2022, they made a big step by proving the conjecture for a specific type of Kakeya sets. Then, in February 2025, they shared a long, 127-page proof that solved the entire Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions! This means they showed that these special regions must have a certain "thickness" in three-dimensional space. This was a huge breakthrough because solving Kakeya problems helps mathematicians understand many other important questions in harmonic analysis.
Awards and Recognitions
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Hong Wang has received many important awards for her amazing work in mathematics:
- In 2022, she received the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize. This award recognized her progress on tough problems like the restriction conjecture.
- In 2025, she was honored with the Salem Prize for her solutions to big problems in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory.
- Also in 2025, she received the ICCM Gold Medal of Mathematics. This medal celebrates top mathematicians of Chinese heritage under 45 years old.
- The Ostrowski Prize was also given to her in 2025 for her important work, including solving the Kakeya set conjecture in three dimensions.
- In 2026, she was awarded the Sadosky Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics. This prize celebrated her groundbreaking ideas in solving central problems in harmonic analysis.
- She also received the prestigious Clay Research Award in 2026.
The biggest honor came on July 23, 2026, when Hong Wang was awarded the Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union. She shared this incredible award with Yu Deng, John Pardon, and Jacob Tsimerman. The Fields Medal recognized her contributions to harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, especially for proving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture. She made history as the first Chinese woman to ever win the Fields Medal!
