Camillo De Lellis Wins 2026 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences
The 2026 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences has been awarded jointly to Camillo De Lellis, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics, and Emmanuel Candès from Stanford University for their “use of deep techniques from mathematical analysis to rigorously understand applied problems in information theory, signal processing, and statistics on the one hand, and to the study of singularities in geometric measure theory and fluid dynamics on the other.”
In their citation, the Shaw Prize's Mathematical Sciences Selection Committee exalted De Lellis’s work relating to the “Plateau problem.” To picture this, imagine taking a wire loop, bending it into a twisted, three-dimensional shape, and dipping it into a bucket of soapy water. When you pull it out, a soap film spans across the wire. Nature automatically stretches this film as tight as possible, meaning the soap film settles into a shape that uses the absolute minimum amount of surface area required to connect to the wire. However, calculating the math for these minimizing surfaces in much higher, theoretical dimensions is incredibly difficult. The Shaw Prize citation describes how, in the 1980s, a mathematician named Frederick J. Almgren, frequent Member in the School of Mathematics, wrote a famously dense 1,700-page paper trying to explain these surfaces. It goes on to highlight how, in a series of five papers published between 2011–15, De Lellis and his collaborator Emanuele Spadaro shortened, simplified, and generalized Almgren’s work.
The citation further highlights how De Lellis built on this with two IAS collaborators, Anna Skorobogatova, Visitor (2020–21), and Paul Minter, Veblen Research Instructor (2022–23) and Veblen Fellow (2023–24). Together, the trio “gave the extension of Almgren’s work to a quantitative estimate in the higher-codimensional case, a very deep result obtained also simultaneously and independently by Krummel and Wickramasekera.”
The second of De Lellis’s breakthroughs emphasized by the Shaw Prize relates to the study of turbulence in fluids. Working alongside László Székelyhidi, Member (2003–04) and Distinguished Visiting Professor (2021–22) in the School, De Lellis “developed a new, very unexpected approach” to understanding this phenomenon, using the concept of convex integration borrowed from the field of geometry. In the Shaw Prize’s assessment, this has “become transformational in current fluid dynamics.”
With his receipt of the Shaw Prize, De Lellis joins an eminent group of IAS scholars who have received the award. In recent years, this has included John Richard Bond, Member (2018) and Visitor (2012) in the School of Natural Sciences, who jointly received the 2025 Shaw Prize in Astronomy alongside George Efstathiou, Visitor (1986) in the School. Kenji Fukaya, Member (2002) in the School of Mathematics, was also awarded the 2025 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences. Other former Shaw Prize recipients include Peter Sarnak, Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics, who won the 2024 prize in Mathematical Sciences. Another IAS-affiliated awardee is newly appointed Trustee Victoria “Vicky” Kaspi. Kaspi won the 2021 Shaw Prize in Astronomy for her “contributions to our understanding of magnetars.”
Read more on the Shaw Prize website.
