Natalie Wolchover

Every four years, the math world’s preeminent awards are given to the finest minds of a generation. The young winners — all under 40 on the first day of the year — have reshaped mathematics and theoretical computer science. Here are their stories.

Focus, commitment, and insight resulted in a “once in a century” proof. Hong Wang is now just the third woman to win a Fields Medal.

An invisible difference in 10% of humans poses deep mysteries in several fields at once.

Plausible answers range from 17 to — in all seriousness — 995.5.

At 25, Kurt Gödel proved there can never be a mathematical “theory of everything.” Columnist Natalie Wolchover explores the implications.

The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover examines the latest developments in the “forever war” over whether string theory can describe the world.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover explores whether applied category theory can be “green” math.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis.