[27 undergraduates and 8 graduate students join the "Olympics of Mathematics" in Philadelphia]
ICM 2026 (International Congress of Mathematicians), the largest gathering in the mathematical world and held once every four years, took place July 23–30 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. POSTECH sent 35 students to the congress, placing them where the currents of global mathematics are shaped.
Organized by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the ICM is often called the "Olympics of Mathematics" and carries more than a century of history. This year's congress featured 185 invited speakers across 20 mathematical sections, and the opening ceremony included the presentation of the Fields Medal, the discipline's highest honor. The 2026 Fields Medals went to Yu Deng (University of Chicago), Hong Wang (NYU Courant Institute), John Pardon (Stony Brook University), and Jacob Tsimerman (University of Toronto), for resolving problems that had stood open for anywhere from 40 to 126 years. Wang became only the third woman in history to receive the medal.
The delegation of 27 undergraduate and 8 graduate students was led by Professor Jin Woo Jang of the Department of Mathematics, who served as Leader Faculty and oversaw the program from the preparation stage through the on-site schedule. POSTECH covered registration fees, round-trip airfare, and insurance — up to 2.5 million KRW (approximately US$1,800) per student — along with accommodation for the duration of the official program, so that students could stand alongside the world's leading mathematicians without financial barriers.
Because undergraduates and graduate students traveled together, the program also made room for the two groups to meet. At an on-site discussion session, the graduate students spoke about their own fields and their experience of academic conferences and answered questions from the undergraduates. For those still deciding what to specialize in, it was a chance to see how research actually unfolds.
Beom-seok Kim, a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics, reflected on the talks: "Hearing world-class researchers — including the Fields Medalists — explain their work in terms of the questions driving it and the long view behind it will shape how I frame my own research topics and present my findings."
Professor Minsung Kim of the Department of Mathematics, who accompanied the students, identified AI as the defining current of this year's congress. "The question of how to use AI effectively in our own research came up constantly — in lecture halls, in hallways, over meals," he said. He pointed to Terence Tao's lecture "Mathematics in the Age of AI" as the clearest illustration of the boundary between traditional mathematical practice and an emerging paradigm: "Its message was that what matters is no longer who solves a problem first, but whether it has been precisely understood and resolved."
Professor Jang, who led the delegation, saw the change over the week. "Students who struggled to follow the lectures at first gradually taught themselves how to hold on to the big picture and the essential questions," he said. He singled out the talks given by Korean-born mathematicians working at the forefront of the field: "Those sessions will have helped the students picture their own futures in concrete terms." He added, "At the next ICM, I hope one of them will be there not as a member of the audience, but as a speaker."
Through a range of academic travel grants, POSTECH has supported student participation in scholarly gatherings at home and abroad. The University plans to continue expanding these opportunities, connecting students as researchers to a wider world.