Fields Medal 2022 - also two mathematicians in Switzerland were honoured
This year, the International Math Union awarded the prestigious Fields Medal to four researchers. Among them are Maryna Viazosvska from EPFL and Hugo Duminil-Copin from the University of Geneva.
The Fields Medal is considered the highest honour for researchers in mathematics. It is awarded every four years to two to four researchers and comes with a prize money of over eleven thousand Swiss francs. This year's recipients are: Hugo Duminil-Copin from the University of Geneva, June Huh from Princeton University, James Maynard from Oxford University and Maryna Viazovska from EPFL. This means that the Fields Medal has already been given to researchers in Switzerland six times since it was first awarded in 1936.
Maryna Viazovska received the Fields Medal for her solution to the question of how to pack spheres in 8 and 24 dimensions as closely together as possible. This problem has occupied mathematicians for several hundred years.
Hugo Dominil-Copin received the Fields Medal for his mathematical description of phase transitions - in other words, how the properties of matter change.