The quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians 1 opened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Fields Prize, known as the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics", was announced that day. Four mathematicians won the prize, and the youngest winner was only 30 years old. The four winners are Peter Scholze, a professor at Bonn University, Kauchel Birkal, a professor at Cambridge University, Alessio Figali, a professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and Aksay Venkatesh, a professor at Stanford University in the United States.

Born in Dresden, the eastern German city, Peter Scholzer is the youngest winner, only 30 years old. Schultz showed his talent in mathematics from an early age. At the age of 24, he became a full-time professor at Bonn University. He is regarded as a rare genius in mathematics in recent years. Because of his outstanding contributions in the fields of arithmetic, algebra and geometry, he is considered as one of the most influential mathematicians in the world.

Kauchel Birkal, a 40-year-old Iranian-born Kurd, moved to Britain after graduating from the Department of Mathematics of Tehran University in Iran. His main research field is algebraic geometry, especially birational geometry. After winning the prize, he said that he was "very happy and excited", and he would continue his beloved mathematics research.