Two IHES Scientists Honored at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

The 12th Breakthrough Prize ceremony is held Saturday, April 18, and IHES is proud to announce that two of its scientists are among this year’s laureates.

Frank Merle has been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, in recognition of his exceptional contributions and Hong Wang has received the New Horizons in Mathematics Prize, honoring outstanding early-career research and remarkable scientific promise.

Frank Merle is Professor at the AGM lab and holds the Chair of Analysis CY Cergy Paris Université – IHES at IHES, supported by the Simons Foundation. He is renowned for his work in the analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations and finite-time blow-up phenomena. He has obtained major results on the compressible Navier–Stokes equations, the supercritical nonlinear Schrödinger equation, and the soliton resolution conjecture. Frank Merle was a plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 and is the recipient of the Prix Ampère de l’Électricité de France 2018, the Bôcher Memorial Prize 2023 awarded by the American Mathematical Society, and the Clay Research Award 2023.

Hong Wang, Permanent Professor at IHES and also Professor at the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, is particularly renowned for her resolution of the Kakeya conjecture, a central problem in harmonic analysis and geometry. Hong Wang is an internationally recognized mathematician who has received several major honors, including the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize 2022, the Salem Prize 2025, the Ostrowski Prize 2025, and the Antonio Ambrosetti Medal 2025.

We warmly congratulate both laureates for their achievements and their inspiring contributions to science.