Abel Prize 2026 awarded to German mathematician Gerd Faltings from Max-Planck Institute

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2026 Abel Prize to Gerd Faltings, Emeritus Research Director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany, "for introducing powerful tools into arithmetic geometry and solving long-standing diophantine conjectures formulated by Mordell and Lang", it announced on 10/03/2026. This is one of the most prestigious prizes in mathematics, alongside the Fields Medal.

"Faltings is a leading figure in arithmetic geometry. His ideas and results have profoundly transformed this field. Not only did he solve important conjectures that had long been unresolved, but he also established new frameworks that have guided decades of subsequent work. His outstanding achievements combine geometrical and arithmetical perspectives and illustrate the power of a deep structural vision," the Academy said.

Diophantine equations are equations that are solved using only integers (positive, negative or equal to zero). This is the case, for example, with the Pythagorean theorem (x² + y² = z²), which "has an infinite number of solutions that are…