Four Young Mathematicians Receive Prestigious Fields Medals as AI Reshapes the Profession

Four Young Mathematicians Receive Prestigious Fields Medals

The awards are bestowed only once every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40. Four mathematicians whose work covers areas like algebraic geometry and partial differential equations are the latest recipients of the Fields Medals, an award that is given out every four years to the brightest young researchers in the field. This year's recipients, announced on Thursday during the International Congress of Mathematics in Philadelphia, solved cutting-edge problems, including one that seemed like a simple puzzle of geometry and another that derived a fundamental equation that describes the motion of gases. The medalists include two people who were born in China -- Yu Deng, 37, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Hong Wang, 35, a professor at New York University and the Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies in France. This is the first time the cadre of Fields winners includes more than one Asian mathematician. Dr. Wang is also just the third woman to receive a Fields. The other two medalists are Jacob Tsimerman, 38, a professor at the University of Toronto, and John Pardon, 37, a professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island. The honor is accompanied by 15,000 Canadian dollars, or about $10,600, and a gold coin with the face of Archimedes, an ancient Greek mathematician. The congress, which is the world's largest and most prestigious gathering of mathematicians, comes as the field faces upheaval from artificial intelligence, which is quickly gaining skills that rival those of human mathematicians. On Sunday, a mathematician reported that he and friends had disproved a conjecture that had first proposed in 1939. Using the Fable A.I. model from Anthropic, they found a counterexample while watching the World Cup final. The counterexample was easily checked, leaving no doubt that the result was valid. The congress will include talks about how A.I. and other tools like software that checks proofs are changing mathematics. One of the Fields winners, Dr. Tsimerman, is even changing the focus of his research to studying the mathematical foundations of A.I. systems to better understand how they work and help avoid unintended consequences. John Charles Fields, a Canadian mathematician, conceived of the medals in the 1920s, and the first medals were awarded in 1936. They are unusual among top academic honors in that they go to people who are still early in their careers, showcasing not only their accomplishments but also their promise. To be eligible, a mathematician must be under the age of 40 on Jan. 1 of the year of the award. Because the medals are bestowed only once every four years, the Fields add prestige through rarity -- which makes them somewhat akin to Olympic medals. Another mathematics award, the Abel Prize, is modeled after the Nobel Prize and recognizes lifetime achievements. The International Mathematical Union, which administers the Fields Medals, informed the recipients several months ago, but they were told to keep it secret until the official announcement on Thursday at the International Congress of Mathematicians, the world's largest gathering of mathematicians. The news leaked last week after hackers discovered the names, which had been poorly hidden on the website for the meeting. "Some of my friends congratulated me, saying that they guessed maybe this is true and then they want to congratulate me," Dr. Wang said. "But I didn't give them any confirmation."

Fields medal honours four mathematicians as AI reshapes the profession

The International Mathematical Union awarded the prestigious Fields Medal to four mathematicians on Thursday, including only the third woman to receive the honour, as researchers weighed the growing impact of artificial intelligence on a field increasingly being reshaped by the technology. The world of mathematics handed out its most prestigious awards on Thursday, at a unique moment for the field as it faces pressure from AI's potential to outpace human calculation. The Fields Medal, known as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, is handed out every four years and this time was awarded to two Chinese citizens, one American and one Canadian. The honour - a recognition of outstanding discoveries by researchers under the age of 40 that is bestowed by the International Mathematical Union - comprises 15,000 Canadian dollars (US$17,000) and a gold medallion bearing the likeness of Archimedes. Chinese mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng, American John Pardon, and Canada's Jacob Tsimerman are this year's recipients of the prize. Wang is only the third woman to receive the honour since its inception in 1936. The 35-year-old from China teaches in France as well as the United States, at New York University. She follows in the footsteps of Maryam Mirzakhani of Iran, who won the prize in 2014, and Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska, who won it in 2022. Wang is being honoured for work that notably led to a solution. Last year, she solved a mathematical puzzle that had stumped experts for more than a century. The conjecture was originally posed by Japanese mathematician Soichi Kakeya. "In 1917, Kakeya asked a very simple question: if you rotate a pencil so as to turn it completely around, what is the smallest area it sweeps out?" Wang told AFP. Along with her colleague Josh Zahl, she finally found an answer by analysing what would happen if the pencil was floating in three-dimensional space, rather than on a flat table. "If this conjecture fascinates people so much, it is because this kind of phenomenon shows up naturally in problems from very different fields," Wang said. 'That's beautiful' The parallel win for Deng, who teaches at the University of Chicago, underscores China's growing prominence in the maths world in recent decades. During a press briefing, he called it a "really great honour to have my name listed after all those great mathematicians I've always been admiring". The United States, which holds the record for the most laureates, was also represented by the 37-year-old Pardon. And Tsimerman, 38, rounds out the quartet. The medals were awarded during the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia. Read moreMicrosoft strikes 'multibillion-dollar' deal with French AI firm Mistral A specialist in complex algebraic geometry and analytic number theory, Tsimerman said his interest in mathematics started with a puzzle his grandfather told him. "It was a little puzzle about a toaster. If you have a toaster but it's broken, so both slots only toast one side of the bread, and you have three pieces of bread that you want to fully toast both sides of, how many times must you use the toaster?" he said. He recounted the sense of wonder he felt after discovering the answer. "I was like, 'That's beautiful,' and I was basically hooked," he said in a video shown at the ceremony. AI risks This year's event takes place as the maths world is increasingly being shaken up by advances in artificial intelligence. In recent months, some AI models have demonstrated the ability to produce high-level mathematical proofs, to the astonishment of many experts. These feats are promising - but also carry risks, a group of mathematicians warned in June. In a document entitled the "Leiden Declaration", the group outlined scientific and ethical concerns regarding AI, calling for the establishment of frameworks and safeguards. And they are not always on point, the group said. Read moreChina's Xi urges global cooperation on AI, warns against single-country dominance "Current automated techniques can produce plausible but unreliable (or even incorrect) arguments which are difficult to distinguish from correct mathematical proofs," read the declaration. "All of these challenges arise at a moment when the consequences of large-scale investment in artificial intelligence are being widely discussed in regard to warfare, mass surveillance, political disruption, and environmental damage." On Thursday, Tsimerman told journalists he will soon start a position at OpenAI in its safety division. "I think the world is changing," he said. "The maths profession as we know it now... I don't think it will exist the way it exists right now." Deng said the trends are clear: AI will change mathematical research. "I'm probably kind of on the more optimistic side," he said, "that the AI is going to be kind of helping mathematicians instead of replacing them."