By YANG GAO in Toronto

Two Chinese nationals were awarded the Fields Medal, regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, on Thursday, marking the first time Chinese nationals have received the prestigious honour.

Wang Hong and Deng Yu shared this year’s award with John Pardon from the United States and Jacob Tsimerman from Canada at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia. The achievement also marks the first time that two Chinese nationals have won the Fields Medal in the same year.

First presented in 1936, the award, which is considered one of the highest honours in the field, is given every four years by the International Mathematical Union, and recognises mathematicians under the age of 40 for their outstanding contributions to mathematics.

Both Wang and Deng enrolled at Peking University in 2007. With their recognition, China has become the fifth country — after the USA, France, the United Kingdom and Russia — to produce two Fields Medalists at the same ceremony, and the first Asian country to achieve the distinction.