Four mathematicians won the Fields Medal in Mathematics, June Huh, James Maynard, Hugo Duminil-Copin, and the 2nd female in history who received a medal, Maryna Viazovska. June Huh is a Korean American mathematician currently a Princeton University Professor. He was previously a professor at Stanford University and the Institute of Advanced Studies. In elementary school, June Huh had poor scores, and so it was thought that he was terrible at math. He dropped out of high school, initially wanting to write poetry instead. “Huh was awarded the 2022 Fields Medal for “bringing the ideas of Hodge theory to combinatorics, the proof of the Dowling–Wilson conjecture for geometric lattices, the proof of the Heron–Rota–Welsh conjecture for matroids, the development of the theory of Lorentzian polynomials, and the proof of the strong Mason conjecture.”
James Maynard is an English mathematician working in analytic theory, particularly the theory of prime numbers. In 2017, he was appointed Research Professor at Oxford. “In November 2013, Maynard gave a different proof of Yitang Zhang’s theorem that there are bounded gaps between primes and resolved a longstanding conjecture by showing that for any, there are infinitely many intervals of bounded length containing m prime numbers.
Experts consider this work progress on the Hardy–Littlewood m-tuples conjecture as it establishes that “a positive proportion of admissible m-tuples satisfy the prime m-tuples conjecture for every.”
Hugo Duminil-Copin is a French mathematician specializing in probability theory. Hugo’s father was a middle school teacher, and his mom is an ex-dancer who became a primary teacher. Hugo grew up in the suburbs of Paris, where he played many sports and initially wanted to attend a sports-oriented high school to pursue his interest in handball. Later, he decided on a high school focus on mathematics and science. In 2013, he was appointed assistant professor, then full professor in 2014 at the University of Geneva. Then in 2016, he became a permanent professor and was a member of Academia Europaea in 2019. “Duminil-Copin was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022 for “solving longstanding problems in the probabilistic theory of phase transitions in statistical physics, especially in dimensions three and four.”
Finally, Maryna Viazovska is a Ukrainian mathematician known for her work in sphere packing. She is currently a full professor and Chair of Number Theory at the Institute of Mathematics of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Maryna was the oldest of 3 sisters, her father was a chemist, and her mother was an engineer. “In 2016, Viazovska solved the sphere-packing problem in dimension 8. Her dimension eight solution quickly led to collaboration with others and a solution in dimension 24. Previously, the problem had been solved only for three or fewer dimensions. Moreover, proof of the three-dimensional version, the Kepler conjecture, involved long computer calculations. In contrast, Viazovska’s proof for 8 and 24 dimensions is “stunningly simple.”
The Feilds Medal is the highest award a mathematician can get, and this year, an unprecedented four successful mathematicians were honored.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/05/science/fields-medal-math#:~:text=The%20prize%20has%20gone%20to,problems%20until%20he%20was%2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Duminil-Copin
James Maynard is an English mathematician working in analytic theory, particularly the theory of prime numbers. In 2017, he was appointed Research Professor at Oxford. “In November 2013, Maynard gave a different proof of Yitang Zhang’s theorem that there are bounded gaps between primes and resolved a longstanding conjecture by showing that for any, there are infinitely many intervals of bounded length containing m prime numbers.
Experts consider this work progress on the Hardy–Littlewood m-tuples conjecture as it establishes that “a positive proportion of admissible m-tuples satisfy the prime m-tuples conjecture for every.”
Hugo Duminil-Copin is a French mathematician specializing in probability theory. Hugo’s father was a middle school teacher, and his mom is an ex-dancer who became a primary teacher. Hugo grew up in the suburbs of Paris, where he played many sports and initially wanted to attend a sports-oriented high school to pursue his interest in handball. Later, he decided on a high school focus on mathematics and science. In 2013, he was appointed assistant professor, then full professor in 2014 at the University of Geneva. Then in 2016, he became a permanent professor and was a member of Academia Europaea in 2019. “Duminil-Copin was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022 for “solving longstanding problems in the probabilistic theory of phase transitions in statistical physics, especially in dimensions three and four.”
Finally, Maryna Viazovska is a Ukrainian mathematician known for her work in sphere packing. She is currently a full professor and Chair of Number Theory at the Institute of Mathematics of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Maryna was the oldest of 3 sisters, her father was a chemist, and her mother was an engineer. “In 2016, Viazovska solved the sphere-packing problem in dimension 8. Her dimension eight solution quickly led to collaboration with others and a solution in dimension 24. Previously, the problem had been solved only for three or fewer dimensions. Moreover, proof of the three-dimensional version, the Kepler conjecture, involved long computer calculations. In contrast, Viazovska’s proof for 8 and 24 dimensions is “stunningly simple.”
The Feilds Medal is the highest award a mathematician can get, and this year, an unprecedented four successful mathematicians were honored.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/05/science/fields-medal-math#:~:text=The%20prize%20has%20gone%20to,problems%20until%20he%20was%2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Duminil-Copin