The Office of Justin Sun named three mathematicians as the newest recipients of the Justin Sun Prize on October 5, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland. Independent number theorist Wouter van Doorn, mathematics Ph.D. student Quanyu Tang, and mathematics researcher Yanyang Li of Southeast University in Nanjing were recognized for contributions spanning six Erdős problems.
Who the 2026 Justin Sun Prize honorees are
Van Doorn is an independent number theorist. Tang is a Ph.D. student in mathematics. Li is a mathematics researcher affiliated with Southeast University in Nanjing. The announcement identifies all three as the newest recipients of the prize, which is awarded by the Office of Justin Sun.
The citation credits the trio with contributions that together touch on six problems associated with Paul Erdős, the Hungarian mathematician whose open problems have shaped parts of number theory and combinatorics for decades. The announcement did not break down which recipient worked on which problem, nor did it specify how the six problems were divided among them.
Why the Erdős problems matter
Erdős problems are a body of open questions that mathematicians have chipped away at for years. Progress on any single problem can take a long time, and results often arrive in pieces rather than as one clean solution. The prize citation groups the three recipients together under a single contribution spanning six of those problems.
Erdős himself left behind a large set of problems, many of which remain unsolved. Work on them tends to be technical and incremental. The prize announcement frames the recipients' efforts as a collective contribution across that set rather than a single breakthrough.
Where the announcement was made
The Office of Justin Sun announced the recipients in Geneva. The announcement did not include a ceremony date, a prize amount, or a list of past recipients. It also did not say how the recipients were selected or who served on the selection committee.
Geneva has become a frequent setting for announcements tied to Justin Sun's activities, though the prize announcement itself provided no further details about the location or the event.
What the prize office has not said
Several basic details are missing from the October 5 announcement. There is no stated monetary value for the prize. There is no indication of whether the recipients will receive the award at a later event or whether the recognition is being made remotely. The announcement also does not specify how the six Erdős problems were identified or verified.
Van Doorn's listing as an independent number theorist is truncated in the source material. It is unclear whether he holds an institutional affiliation or works entirely outside academia. Tang's Ph.D. program and university are not named. Li's role at Southeast University is described only as a mathematics researcher.
The Office of Justin Sun has not responded publicly to questions about the missing details, and no follow-up announcement has been scheduled as of the prize date.
For now, the three recipients have been named, the problems have been counted at six, and the prize has been announced from Geneva. What happens next — a ceremony, a paper, a fuller citation — has not been made public.
