- Two US -based Chinese mathematicians , Hong Wang and Yu Deng, have been awarded the prestigious Fields Medal, often considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics .
- This marks the first time two mathematicians educated in mainland China have received the honour in the same year, making China the fifth country and first in Asia to achieve this feat.
- Ms Wang, a professor at New York University , was recognised for resolving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture, a geometry problem that challenged mathematicians for over a century.
- Mr Deng, a professor at the University of Chicago , received his award for work on Hilbert's Sixth Problem, concerning the behaviour of large systems from particle-level to observable scales.
- The other two winners were John Pardon from the US and Jacob Tsimerman from Canada . The identities of the winners were leaked online last week after hackers discovered their names on the conference website, though recipients had been informed months prior.
IN FULL
China celebrates its first winners of top global maths prize – here are the problems they solved
