Hong Wang


Hong Wang is a Chinese mathematician who works in Fourier analysis and geometric measure theory. She received the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize in 2022 and the Salem Prize in 2025.

Early life and education

Wang was born in Guilin, Guangxi, China, in 1991. Her parents are both teachers at a secondary school in Pingle County. She skipped two grades during primary school. In 2004, she attended. In 2007, 16-year-old Wang gained early admission to Peking University's School of Earth and Space Sciences with a score of 653 in the Gaokao. After a year, she transferred to the School of Mathematical Sciences. She received an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Peking University in 2011. In 2014, she graduated with dual degrees: an engineering degree at École polytechnique and a master's degree from Paris-Sud University. In 2019, she received a PhD in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Larry Guth.

Career

Wang was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 2019 to 2021. She then joined University of California, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor of mathematics. She is currently professor at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and, since 1 September 2025, also Permanent Professor of Mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques.
On 24 February 2025, Wang and her collaborator posted an arXiv preprint "Volume estimates for unions of convex sets, and the Kakeya set conjecture in three dimensions" claiming to solve the Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions. The general Kakeya conjecture has been described by Terence Tao as "one of the most sought-after open problems in geometric measure theory". The claimed proof is considered to be a breakthrough in geometric measure theory.

Awards and honors

Wang was a 2022 recipient of the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize, given "for advances on the restriction conjecture, the local smoothing conjecture, and related problems".
Wang was a 2025 recipient of the Salem Prize, given "for her role in solutions to major open problems in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory." She was awarded the 2025 ICCM Gold Medal of Mathematics from the International Consortium of Chinese Mathematicians, given to "outstanding mathematicians of Chinese descent under the age of 45 for their achievements in the research of pure and applied mathematics, and for their great contributions to the development of mathematics." She was also a 2025 recipient of the Ostrowski Prize, given for her "influential work in harmonic analysis, solving central problems in the field like the Kakeya set conjecture in three dimensions or the restriction conjecture in higher dimensions".
She was awarded the 2026 Sadosky Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics, given "for solving central problems in harmonic analysis through the introduction of ground-breaking ideas. In particular, for substantial contributions to the Fourier restriction problem, the Kakeya conjecture, and geometric measure theory."