Where Fields Medalists Studied and Worked?

On July 23, the 2026 Fields Medal, widely regarded as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics," was announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). Four mathematicians were awarded this year's prize: Hong Wang, Yu Deng, John Pardon, and Jacob Tsimerman.

Awarded once every four years, the Fields Medal recognizes up to four mathematicians under the age of 40 who have made outstanding contributions to the field. It is widely considered the highest honor in mathematics. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal is awarded to only a handful of recipients and follows a four-year selection cycle. To better understand the global landscape of mathematical talent, WorldHE compiled data on all 67 Fields Medal laureates since the prize was first awarded in 1936, examining both their institutional affiliations at the time of the award and their undergraduate, master's, and doctoral education.

Princeton University Has Produced the Most Fields Medal Affiliations

The data show that Fields Medal winners have been affiliated with 42 institutions at the time of receiving the award.

Princeton University ranks first with 9 laureates, followed closely by the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) in France with 8, while the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton ranks third with 7. These three world-renowned research institutions alone account for nearly 30% of all Fields Medal affiliations, demonstrating a remarkable concentration of elite mathematical talent.

One of this year's winners, Hong Wang, is a tenured professor of mathematics at IHÉS and the institute's first tenured Chinese faculty member. Founded in 1958, IHÉS is a leading research institute specializing in mathematics, theoretical physics, and related disciplines. Of its current five tenured mathematics professors, three are Fields Medalists: Hong Wang, Maxim Kontsevich, and Hugo Duminil-Copin, who won the Fields Medal in the previous cycle.

Another 2026 laureate, Jacob Tsimerman, is the first Fields Medal winner from the University of Toronto and the first Fields Medalist based in Canada. The Fields Medal itself is named after John Charles Fields, a professor at the University of Toronto.

At the national level, the United States and France dominate the rankings, together accounting for more than two-thirds of all Fields Medal affiliations. In the United States, Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study form a twin powerhouse of mathematical research. France, meanwhile, has built a strong ecosystem through institutions such as IHÉS, Paris-Saclay University, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), attracting many of the world's leading mathematicians.

Notably, looking only at the last ten Fields Medal cycles (1990–2026), IHÉS and the IAS each produced five laureates, overtaking Princeton University (four laureates), with the University of Cambridge following closely behind with three. The global geography of mathematical excellence is becoming increasingly dynamic.

University of Cambridge Has Educated the Most Fields Medalists

The educational backgrounds of Fields Medalists provide another perspective on universities' ability to cultivate mathematical talent. Overall, 60 universities have educated at least one Fields Medal winner.

The University of Cambridge ranks first with 14 alumni, maintaining a balanced strength across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral education. Princeton University follows with 13 alumni, including nine doctoral alumni, reflecting its deep tradition in advanced mathematical research training. Lomonosov Moscow State University ranks third with 12 alumni, followed by the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) with 10, while Harvard University rounds out the top five.

At the national level, the United States and France continue to lead, with 45 and 28 alumni respectively. The United Kingdom ranks third with 20, while Russia, benefiting from the Soviet Union's long-standing mathematical tradition, ranks among the top tier with 17. Together, these four countries have educated more than 60% of all Fields Medalists.

The four recipients of the 2026 Fields Medal are distinguished alumni of Peking University, École Polytechnique, Paris XI University (now Paris-Saclay University), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Toronto.

Hong Wang and Yu Deng were classmates in the 2007 undergraduate cohort of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University. The school has long been known as "the premier department of China's premier university."

Among the students who studied there around the early 2000s emerged a remarkable generation of mathematicians, including Chenyang Xu, Ruochuan Liu, Zhiwei Yun, Xinyi Yuan, Wei Zhang, Xinwen Zhu, and Liang Xiao, among others. This cohort has often been celebrated as a legendary "golden generation" of Chinese mathematics.

In addition, Shing-Tung Yau, the first ethnic Chinese mathematician to receive the Fields Medal and now a professor at Tsinghua University, earned his bachelor's degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This year, with Hong Wang and Yu Deng winning the Fields Medal and 12 Peking University alumni invited to present at the International Congress of Mathematicians, one message is unmistakable: mathematical talent trained in China is emerging as an increasingly influential force at the very center of the global mathematical community.

Data Notes: Since Grigori Perelman declined the 2006 Fields Medal, he is excluded from the statistics. Institutional affiliations have been standardized where universities have officially changed names or merged; if a historical institution later split into multiple independent universities, the original name has been retained. Alumni statistics are based on attendance rather than degree completion, with each bachelor's, master's, and doctoral enrollment counted separately. If a laureate held appointments at multiple institutions when receiving the award, each institution is counted once. The data were collected manually and are not exhaustive.