Fields Medalist Martin Hairer praised the 2026 International Congress of Basic Science underway in Beijing for uniting diverse scientific disciplines.
The Fields Medal, often described as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics," is awarded every four years to up to four mathematicians under 40 for outstanding achievements.
The 13-day congress, which opened on Aug 9, brings together leading scholars in mathematics, physics, information science, engineering and other fundamental fields.
"I think it's been really great to see how sort of lively research in basic sciences is, to see recognition for the great works that people did in the various, very broad sort of range of areas. I think that's one thing that it was very nice. It's very rare to actually have one Congress where you see everything from pure mathematics to applied mathematics to theoretical physics to engineering. So it's a really extremely broad and that's very nice to see," said Hairer in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) on Sunday on the sidelines of the event.
Hairer, a professor at the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and Imperial College London, won the Fields Medal in 2014 for his contributions to the theory of stochastic partial differential equations, particularly for developing a theory of regularity structures for such equations.
Now in its fourth year, the congress has drawn Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, and leading academics from around the world under the theme "Advancing Basic Science for Humanity."
Fields Medalist hails int'l science congress for disciplinary diversity
