By Matthew Hersh
Three mathematicians with ties to the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) are among the four recipients of the 2026 Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics. Jacob Tsimerman, currently a distinguished visiting professor at IAS; Hong Wang, a former IAS member; and John Pardon, a former visitor; were recognized for their contributions to the field at this year’s International Congress of Mathematicians on July 23 in Philadelphia.
The Fields Medal, awarded every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 for outstanding contributions to the field, bolsters IAS’ long history in mathematics. First awarded in 1936, 49 of 68 Fields Medal recipients have had an affiliation with the Princeton-based Institute. For IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg, that record reflects not only the caliber of mathematicians drawn to the IAS, but the unique environment they find when they arrive.
The record is not simply the result of recruiting accomplished mathematicians, Nirenberg said. It reflects IAS’ longstanding mission of identifying exceptional talent from around the world and giving scholars the freedom to pursue their most ambitious questions.
IAS has three principal forms of affiliation among its Fields Medalists, he explained: members, Distinguished visiting professors, and permanent faculty.
“In a way, all three of those positions are ways in which the Institute tries to see into the future,” Nirenberg said.
Members come to the institute to pursue their research, distinguished visiting professors can lead groups working on particular problems, and permanent faculty help shape the intellectual direction of the School of Mathematics.
“We’re trying to nourish the talent that we think can make the greatest progress in mathematics, no matter where on the globe they come from,” said Nirenberg.
That freedom is central to what makes the Institute different from a traditional university, he said, adding that IAS has no students to teach and no curriculum to maintain. Its scholars come to Princeton with the opportunity to focus primarily on research, without the commercial applications, teaching responsibilities and other demands that can compete for a researcher’s time and attention.
But the environment is not solitary, Nirenberg said, noting that it is quite the opposite. “It’s almost impossible to imagine just how collaborative the institute is,” he said.
Scholars live on the same residential campus, he noted. They eat together, their children attend the same nursery school, and they share playgrounds and other spaces. The result is an unusual level of interaction among people working in different disciplines.
In the School of Mathematics, Nirenberg said, roughly 60 or 70 mathematicians can be gathered in a given year with essentially one overriding responsibility: to think and work on mathematics.
“And they really drive, or talk mathematics and physics,” he said, also pointing to conversations and collaborations involving social science, artificial intelligence, and history.
“Bringing everyone together, the mathematicians, the physicists, the social scientists, the historians, having them all live together, do essentially every aspect of their life together, means that you have a kind of condenser for collaboration,” Nirenberg said.
“You really have nothing to do but think with yourself and think with others,” he added. “And it’s hard to imagine what is better for catalyzing work than that kind of condition.”
IAS also deliberately creates opportunities for mathematicians to tackle particularly significant problems. Each year, the School of Mathematics faculty selects a topic it considers especially important and ripe for advancement, and then recruits senior mathematicians and other researchers to work together during what IAS calls a “special year.”
Tsimerman, one of this year’s Fields Medalists, is currently leading such a special year as a distinguished visiting professor.
Nirenberg described the IAS’ role in advancing mathematics in three ways: recruiting permanent faculty who can set the school’s intellectual direction; identifying and nurturing promising researchers from around the world; and bringing scholars together to concentrate on important problems.
The IAS’ influence can be seen in individual areas of mathematics as well, Nirenberg said, pointing to the recruitment of mathematician Robert P. Langlands to the faculty and the role IAS played in advancing what became known as the Langlands Program, which remains one of the field’s most important areas of study decades after its conception.
The latest Fields Medals are part of that longer history, but Nirenberg said the accumulated achievements of scholars who have passed through IAS can also affect the people who come to the Institute today.
The legacy, beginning with figures such as Albert Einstein, creates a sense that IAS is a place where extraordinary work can happen.
“It’s hard not to feel that this is a place that cultivates the potential for greatness when you see so much talent and achievement has come before you,” said Nirenberg.
That history can also create a sense of responsibility, he acknowledged: “Can I live up to that past?”
But that pressure can also become motivation, he said, particularly when combined with the freedom IAS provides.
The Fields Medals, then, are just one measure of the success of a philosophy that extends beyond mathematics.
“Most of the really difficult problems confronting us, whether in mathematics or in any of the other disciplines that we cover at the Institute, require great talent and deep thought,” Nirenberg said.
“There are very few places that are dedicated to finding that talent and permitting that deep thought, without imposing all kinds of other goals,” he added, such as commercial application or teaching.
The IAS’ role, Nirenberg said, “has always been ensuring that there is a place in our society for that total commitment to the most difficult problems.”
The latest Fields Medals offer a particularly visible testament to that mission. But for IAS, the larger achievement may be the environment that makes such work possible: exceptional people brought together in one place, given the freedom to follow difficult questions wherever they lead, and surrounded by others doing the same.