The winners of the 2026 Xplorer Prize were officially announced on August 24, with 50 outstanding young scientists from China and abroad selected for this year's awards. Joshua Norbert ZAHL, Chair Professor at the Chern Institute of Mathematics, Nankai University, is among the six 2026 awardees in the Mathematics and Physics category.
The Xplorer Prize is a nonprofit award funded by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation, known as one of the leading funding programs for young scientists in China. It supports promising young scientists to unleash their full potential and push the frontiers of basic science and frontier technologies by providing no-strings-attached funding. The Xplorer Prize covers ten major scientific research fields, including Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry and New Materials, Astronomy and Geosciences, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, Information Technology and Electronics, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Transportation and Construction, and Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies. Each year a maximum of 50 awardees are selected.
Born in 1986, Joshua Zahl earned his bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He previously worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of British Columbia. In June 2025, he joined Nankai University as a Chair Professor at the Chern Institute of Mathematics. His research centers on classical harmonic analysis and discrete geometry, with particular interests in the Kakeya conjecture, sum-product problems, and the Erdős distance problem. His highly original contributions have been published in top-tier journals such as Inventiones Mathematicae and the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, earning him extensive recognition from the international mathematical community.
In February 2025, Joshua Zahl and Chinese mathematician Hong Wang completed a 127-page proof that fully resolved the Kakeya conjecture in three-dimensions. In April 2026, Joshua Zahl received the Clay Research Award. It is the first time the award has been given to a mathematician working full time in China.
At the opening ceremony of this year's International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), Hong Wang was awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for her outstanding mathematical achievement. The award citation specifically mentioned the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture, a problem that had challenged mathematicians for more than half a century. As featured in the award-winner video screened at the ceremony, this conjecture was fully solved by Hong Wang and Joshua Zahl using a refined multiscale inductive method. Joshua Zahl was invited to deliver a 45-minute lecture at the ICM this year, focusing on the complete proof of the three-dimensional Kakeya set conjecture.
Source: NKU News
Translated by CIM
