U of T mathematician becomes first Canada-based Fields Medal recipient

Canadian professor and mathematician Jacob Tsimerman has made history as the first scholar based at a Canadian institution — and the second Canadian — to receive the Fields Medal.

“It’s a big honour, obviously, getting this award for me and my collaborators who I’m very happy are getting recognized as well,” said Tsimerman. “I’m thrilled to be here.”

The Fields Medal is one of the world’s highest honours in mathematics, awarded every four years to recognize extraordinary research achievement by up to four mathematicians under the age of 40.

While this year’s International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Philadelphia, colleagues of Tsimerman back in Toronto were cheering him on as he accepted his medal.

Tsimerman was honoured, in part, for helping prove a problem that had stumped mathematicians for decades: the André–Oort conjecture.

According to U of T, his work was crucial in establishing the conjecture and confirming that intuition.

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The result is significant not only because it solved a long-standing problem, but because it opened entirely new directions of research.

“Extremely inspiring,” said second-year U of T student Darien Bishop. “It very much exhilarates me to do more mathematics, because I do want to become a mathematician.”

For aspiring mathematicians like high school student Emir Kardos, Tsimerman’s achievement was inspiring.

“The Fields Medal is the most prestigious award you can get in mathematics,” Kardos said. “Seeing a Canadian mathematician on the global stage winning the Fields Medal is incredible…I really feel a sense of hope towards the future and definitely inspiration.”

PhD candidate Sara Sajadi, who has been working closely with the professor who is her adviser, was happy to see Tsimerman’s success.

“No mathematician does mathematics for the sake of winning a Fields Medal,” she said. “But seeing us all come together and celebrate his achievements is really great.”

“He started as an undergrad here at the University of Toronto,” said U of T Faculty of Arts & Science Dean Stephen Wright about Tsimerman. “He’s well-beloved by his students for bringing the enthusiasm we saw there for his discoveries, to the classroom.”

At 16 years old, Tsimerman started a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at U of T before graduating in just two years.

From there, he earned his PhD from Princeton and spent time as a Junior Fellow in Harvard University’s Society of Fellows before joining U of T as the youngest person to be appointed full professor in the department of mathematics.

Given that the Fields Medal’s namesake — late mathematician John Charles Fields — was Canadian and a U of T alumnus, Tsimerman’s univeristy colleagues are happy to see the recognition associated with the school once again.

“It took us a century to do it,” said U of T Mathematics Prof. Kumar Murty. “But, we did it.”