张益唐 (“Subway Sandwich Mathematician” who proved “Twine Prime Conjecture” after 7 years making sandwiches) praised Wang Hong 王虹 (née 1991-, 广西 客家村 ) as very 专注 (focused) , although she doesn’t have math talent like her 北大 cohort 韦神 (also né 1991-).

Fields Medalist 丘城桐 (Hakka, HK) gave her the top China Maths prize after she had already won few young mathematician prizes (Iranian “Maryam Mirzakhani” Prize) in USA.

A French scholar after her Bsc degree Maths from 北大 Maths.
While she is world-famous today as a master of Harmonic Analysis, her path through the French system involved exactly:

Academic Pivot at Ecole Polytechnique (X)

The Switch: Hong Wang (王虹) entered Ecole Polytechnique (X2010) and initially found the theoretical math classes exceptionally challenging. Feeling that pure math might be “too difficult” at that level, she chose to specialize in a more applied engineering track—specifically Civil Engineering and Architecture (often referred to in the French system as Génie Civil or Architecture/Urbanisme).
The Degree: She graduated from Polytechnique in 2014 with the standard Diplôme d’Ingénieur.

Return to Mathematics (MSc Maths)

*The Realization: Despite her engineering studies, her passion for mathematics remained. She decided to return to pure math for her graduate work.
She obtained her MSc in Mathematics in 2014 with Paris-Sud/Paris-Saclay.

*PhD: After rediscovering her footing in math, she moved to the US to complete her PhD at MIT under Larry Guth, eventually solving the long-standing Kakeya Conjecture in 3D.
Summary of her Path
Undergraduate: Math at Peking University (2007–2011).
“X”( Ecole Polytechnique) Specialization: Engineering & Architecture (2011–2014).
Master’s: MSc in Math at Paris-Sud / Paris-Saclay (2014).
Doctorate: PhD in Math at MIT (2019).
She is now a Permanent Professor at the IHES in France and a professor at NYU Courant, proving that her initial feeling that math was “too difficult” was just a temporary hurdle on her way to becoming one of the field’s top researchers.

Note: She obtained her MSc from Paris-Sud (Paris 11), which was the premier math school in the Orsay cluster.
​During that exact period (2014), Paris-Saclay was being established as a “mega-university” to group Paris 11 with other schools like Ecole Polytechnique .

丘城桐 has been a vocal supporter of her career, especially as she solved the 3D Kakeya Conjecture, a problem that had stumped the math world for nearly a century. Her ability to pivot from architecture—which she found more “intuitive”—back into pure math to solve one of the most abstract problems in geometry is cited as a major reason for her receiving the ICCM Gold Medal （ equiv “China Fields Medal”).

​Given her recent wins of the Salem Prize and the ICCM Gold Medal, she is currently a front-runner for the 2026 Fields Medal.