Yunqing Tang Receives 2026 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize

Congratulations to Harvard math PhD graduate Yunqing Tang, currently an associate professor at University of California, Berkeley, for receiving the 2026 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize!

Tang won the prize jointly with Vesselin Dimitrov for solving long-standing problems in number theory that had resisted all previous approaches. Alongside Frank Calegari, they proved the “unbounded denominators conjecture,” about a fundamental class of objects known as modular forms, using methods that surprised experts in the field. Most recently, again with Calegari, they proved the irrationality of a number related to a basic infinite series – the first result of its kind since Apéry’s celebrated work forty-five years ago.

The New Horizons in Mathematics Prize is awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, honoring scientists whose discoveries are significantly driving growth of human knowledge.