On July 28, the topic "Wang Hong's Recommendation Letter" topped the Weibo trending list. Online rumors claimed that the Fields Medal winner Wang Hong's recommendation letter for studying in France was written by her first-year class advisor, Professor Lei Jun from the School of Earth and Space Sciences, crossing academic departments. Some netizens posted, "It's said Wang Hong almost couldn't study abroad because no one in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University was willing to write her a recommendation letter..." This sparked widespread discussion.

According to the official WeChat account of the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, Lei Jun, an associate professor there and Wang Hong's first-year class advisor, wrote her a recommendation letter for studying in France before her undergraduate graduation in 2011.

On July 28, Rao Yi, the former president of Capital Medical University and a tenured chair professor at Peking University, clarified: Wang Hong entered Peking University in 2007 and graduated from the School of Mathematical Sciences in 2011. She then went to France for graduate studies and earned her master's degree in 2014. In the year of her graduation, three professors from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University—Wang Fuzheng, Wang Lizhong, and Tian Qingchun—along with Lei Jun from the School of Earth and Space Sciences, wrote recommendation letters for her study in France.

According to the official website of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University, Tian Qingchun has been teaching at the School of Mathematical Sciences since 1994, serving as a lecturer and associate professor, and retired in May 2025. Wang Fuzheng and Wang Lizhong are both currently associate professors in the Department of Mathematics at the School of Mathematical Sciences.

Wang Hong, born in 1991 in Guilin, Guangxi, was admitted to the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University at age 16 and transferred to the School of Mathematical Sciences a year later. According to the China Science Daily, the Department of Mathematics at Peking University only admitted one student from Guangxi in that year, and Wang Hong was ultimately enrolled in the School of Earth and Space Sciences. From the very first day of enrollment, Wang Hong was preparing for the transfer. After tremendous effort, she successfully transferred to the Department of Mathematics in her sophomore year.

After graduating from her undergraduate studies, Wang Hong studied in France, earning an engineering degree from École Polytechnique and a master's degree from the University of Paris-Sud in 2014. In 2019, she received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and then conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She is now a tenured professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France, making her the first Chinese and first Asian tenured professor in the institute's history. Among the 13 previous tenured mathematics professors at IHES, 8 have won the Fields Medal.

On July 23, 2026, the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Philadelphia, USA, where the Fields Medal, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize" of mathematics, was officially announced. Wang Hong was one of the four recipients. For more detailed information and in-depth analysis on Wang Hong winning the Fields Medal, stay tuned to the Sina Finance APP.