German mathematician Gerd Faltings wins the Abel Prize 2026

German mathematician Gerd Faltings has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Abel Prize, one of the most important awards in the field. The award was announced by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and the award ceremony will be held on May 26 in Oslo, in the presence of the King of Norway, Harold V.

Faltings was recognized for his fundamental contributions to arithmetic geometry, including the development of new tools with a lasting impact on the field. The Academy described him as an “outstanding personality” whose “ideas and results have profoundly marked the field”. According to the organization, the mathematician “not only proved important and long-standing conjectures, but also established new methods” that have influenced research for decades.

The researcher had already been awarded the Fields Medal in 1986, making him one of the few to have won both of mathematics’ main prizes. While the Fields Medal is awarded to researchers up to 40 years old, the Abel Medal recognizes the body of work.

One of the most remarkable moments of his career came in 1983, when he proved the Mordell Conjecture, proposed in 1922 by Louis Joel Mordell. The problem had challenged mathematicians for decades and its solution had great international repercussions, paving the way for later advances, such as work related to the Mordell-Lang conjecture.

Created in 2003 by the Norwegian government, the Abel Prize is named after mathematician Niels Henrik Abel and is considered one of the highest honors in contemporary mathematics. In 2025, the winner was Japanese mathematician Masaki Kashiwara.