Ngô Bảo Châu

Vietnamese mathematician who made groundbreaking contributions to the Langlands program, earning the Fields Medal in 2010.

Ngô Bảo Châu (born June 28, 1972) is a Vietnamese-French mathematician renowned for proving the fundamental lemma in the Langlands program, a complex set of conjectures linking number theory and representation theory. His work resolved a problem that had stumped mathematicians for decades, earning him the Fields Medal—often considered the 'Nobel Prize of Mathematics'—in 2010.

Born in Hanoi, Châu demonstrated exceptional talent early, winning gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1988 and 1989. He later studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and became a professor at the University of Chicago. His proof of the fundamental lemma using geometric methods revolutionized the field, enabling advances in automorphic forms and arithmetic geometry.

Beyond academia, Châu advocates for education reform in Vietnam, founding the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. He bridges Western and Asian mathematical traditions, inspiring a new generation of researchers.