Recently, the news that Chinese-born scholars Wang Hong and Deng Yu, who teach in Europe and the United States, received the Fields Medal, the highest honor in international mathematics, was widely promoted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media.
However, when Wang Hong was interviewed, she expressed gratitude to many individuals and institutions that had helped her, but reportedly made very little mention of her alma mater, Peking University.
The Epoch Times reported that Wang’s experience had prompted online criticism of Peking University, with commentators describing her as a gifted mathematician whose confidence was nearly crushed there and saying the university may have been “the most embarrassed” institution online after her Fields Medal victory.
Chinese scholars Wang Hong and Deng Yu graduated from Peking University
According to Peking University News, the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians opened in Philadelphia on the morning of July 23. At the opening ceremony, the International Mathematical Union announced the recipients of the 21st Fields Medal.
Wang Hong and Deng Yu, both undergraduate alumni of Peking University’s Class of 2007, were among the recipients. They became the first mathematicians of Chinese nationality to receive the Fields Medal.
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The Fields Medal is awarded every four years, with no more than four recipients selected each time. It honors mathematicians under the age of 40 who have made outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics.
It is considered one of the highest honors in mathematics and is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics.”
According to a report by Chinese media outlet Observer, Wang Hong was born in 1991 in Guilin, Guangxi Province. At the age of 16, she entered the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, and one year later transferred to the School of Mathematical Sciences.
In February 2025, she and mathematician Joshua Zahl published a 127-page paper announcing a breakthrough on the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture—a century-old mathematical problem concerning the smallest possible region swept out when a “needle” rotates through three-dimensional space.
Mathematician Nets Katz of Rice University described the achievement as a “once-in-a-century” breakthrough.
Wang Hong is currently a tenured professor of mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France, becoming the institute’s first Chinese and first Asian tenured professor in its history.
Wang Hong: Years of study in France left a deep mark
According to Quanta Magazine, Wang Hong became only the third woman to receive the Fields Medal in the award’s 90-year history. She was recognized for her breakthrough work with Joshua Zahl on the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture.
Wang Hong completed her undergraduate studies at Peking University before pursuing advanced studies in France for many years. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019. In 2025, she became a tenured professor at IHES and also served as a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University (NYU).
After receiving the award, Wang Hong told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the years she spent at institutions including École Polytechnique, Paris-Saclay University, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and IHES had left a profound mark on her.
Since its establishment in 1958, IHES has produced nine Fields Medalists. Asked how she explained this achievement, Wang Hong said it was not accidental.
She explained: IHES uses scientific excellence as its sole criterion for recruitment and then gives researchers complete trust. There are no teaching obligations and no administrative duties, allowing researchers to freely and fully devote themselves to long-term research.
She added that the environment itself also plays a major role. The institute is located in the natural surroundings of Bois-Marie Park, and this tranquility is essential for concentration.
Many major mathematical theorems have been developed there, she said, and the ideas of previous generations of scholars still seem to flow within its walls. Working in such an environment inspires researchers to aim higher and pursue ambitious goals.
Wang Hong said that returning to IHES (Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques) years later to teach felt as though she had completed a full circle in her life. She still remembers the feeling when she first arrived at the institute: “At that time, I felt that I was in a truly unique place, where I could devote myself completely to mathematical research. This was also the place where many mathematicians I admired had proven important theorems, which gave it a very special significance.”
Commentary: ‘The most embarrassed party across the internet may be Peking University’
Peking University quickly celebrated Wang Hong and Deng Yu’s Fields Medal victories, but the reaction also prompted criticism over how much credit the university could reasonably claim for Wang’s success.
In later interviews about her academic development, Wang reportedly spoke far more about the institutions and mentors who supported her after she left China than about Peking University.
A July 27 commentary published on Sohu argued that Peking University had become “the most embarrassed party across the internet,” citing Wang’s description of her undergraduate years as a period in which simply managing to “survive” felt like an achievement.
Rather than a period in which her talent was recognized and nurtured, her four years at the university appeared to have been marked largely by self-doubt and struggle.
In 2007, 16-year-old Wang Hong was admitted to Peking University, but her score was reportedly not high enough for the Mathematics Department, so she was assigned to the School of Earth and Space Sciences instead. From the first day of university, she began preparing to transfer to mathematics.
After transferring to the mathematics department in her second year, she discovered that many of her classmates were Olympiad gold medalists. Unlike them, she had no experience in mathematics competition training. At Peking University’s mathematics school, which gathered top mathematics talents from across China, she reportedly found herself near the bottom of the class rankings for a period of time.
In an interview Wang Hong gave to the French newspaper Le Monde, she said: “In my class, some people were truly outstanding. I was not sure about my own abilities, even though I worked very hard. I did not feel that I had the same kind of talent as they did.”
In interviews, Wang Hong spoke about her parents, Paris, NYU, and IHES, but mentioned Peking University very little. The only time she referred to Peking University, it said, was when she remarked: “Simply being able to survive was already enough.”
In a March 2025 interview with China Education Daily, Tian Gang, a Chinese Academy of Sciences academician and one of Wang’s former professors at Peking University, said she “was not a mathematics-competition student and was not the most outstanding performer in her class, but through her passion for analysis and years of hard work, she ultimately achieved a breakthrough.”
Wang Hong was indeed not particularly prominent at Peking University at the time, did not receive special attention, and that her later achievements surprised her former teachers.
In other words, Peking University did not identify her potential, did not provide her with special cultivation, and may even have nearly undermined her confidence in mathematics. It argued that her eventual success came from her own passion and perseverance, as well as from the academic environments in France and the United States.
Commentary: ‘A genius almost swallowed by a top university’
While pursuing her Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wang Hong worked under mathematician Larry Guth, who encouraged her to develop and articulate her ideas rather than interrupting or dismissing them.
After earning her doctorate in 2019, Wang and a collaborator published a 127-page paper in February 2025 proving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture. On July 23, 2026, she received the Fields Medal.
“But how much of this can truly be credited to Peking University?” a commentary asked. It argued that the university’s embarrassment stems from its eagerness to associate itself with Wang’s achievement even though Wang herself may not view the institution as central to her success.
Across the Chinese internet, many celebrated “Peking University alumna Wang Hong” as a Fields Medalist. Yet the commentary raised a more difficult question: Had Wang remained at Peking University, would she ever have reached the same level of achievement?
Its conclusion was that Wang only fully realized her potential after leaving the university. A gifted mathematician who had nearly been “swallowed” by a top institution ultimately emerged through her own passion for mathematics and the support of more encouraging academic environments.
Her Fields Medal, the commentary argued, should therefore be regarded not as Peking University’s achievement, but as Wang’s own victory.
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