John Pardon Wins 2026 Fields Medal for Outstanding Mathematical Achievement

John Pardon, professor in the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University) Simons Center for Geometry and Physics and Department of Mathematics, has been named one of four recipients of the 2026 Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).

The medals were awarded at the July 23 opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Fields Medal, often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics due to its prestige, is awarded every four years to two to four mathematicians under the age of 40. The medal recognizes outstanding mathematical achievement in existing work and the promise of future achievement.

Pardon was recognized for his achievements in symplectic geometry, including new approaches to virtual fundamental cycles, Fukaya categories of certain manifolds and counting holomorphic curves, and for his contributions to other areas of geometry and topology, including group actions on 3-manifolds and knot theory.

From the Fields Medal citation: "John Pardon is a mathematician of extraordinary depth and originality, who has repeatedly had a significant impact on the fields of topology and symplectic geometry. He has both contributed to fundamental structure and solved problems that had stymied the community for decades."

Pardon determined how to count curves on specific shapes in the field of symplectic geometry, proving the 20-year-old MNOP conjecture, which posited that two different ways of counting curves were in fact the same. Those specific shapes, called Calabi-Yau 3-folds, are thought to model our universe in superstring theory. Pardon's work has implications for representation theory, symplectic topology and quantum physics.

"The four medalists exemplify the depth, originality and vitality of contemporary mathematics, and we are delighted to celebrate their achievements at the International Congress of Mathematicians," said Hiraku Nakajima, president of the IMU.

Pardon is the third faculty member from Stony Brook University who has been awarded the Fields Medal. Previous recipients who have taught at Stony Brook include John Milnor, who was honored in 1962, and Sir Simon Donaldson, who was a recipient in 1986.

Each winner receives 15,000 Canadian dollars (approximately $10,600) and a gold medal bearing the visage of the Greek mathematician Archimedes. The medals and cash prizes are funded by a trust established by J.C.Fields at the University of Toronto. For 2026, the prize funds from the University of Toronto are supplemented by generous support from the Fields Institute.

The other 2026 Fields Medal recipients are Yu Deng of the University of Chicago, Jacob Tsimerman of the University of Toronto and Hong Wang of New York University and France's Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES).

Pardon was one of three recipients last year of the New Horizons in Mathematics prize, which is part of the annual Breakthrough Prizes, popularly known as the "Oscars® of Science." The award is given to early-career researchers who have already produced important work in their fields. Pardon was recognized for his research that has produced a number of important results in geometry and topology, particularly in the field of symplectic geometry and pseudo-holomorphic curves, which are certain types of smooth surfaces in manifolds.

Pardon joined the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics in 2022. He served as an assistant professor at Stanford University before moving to Princeton University as a professor in 2016. He received his PhD from Stanford and an AB in Mathematics from Princeton. He has also won the Clay Research Award and was elected to the 2018 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society.