“Gerd Faltings won the 2026 Abel Prize for proving the Mordell conjecture.”

Gerd Faltings has been awarded the 2026 Abel Prize "for introducing powerful tools in arithmetic geometry and resolving long-standing diophantine conjectures of Mordell and Lang." A diophantine problem known as the Mordell conjecture (1922) had fascinated the mathematical world for 60 years.

This year's Abel Prize has been awarded to the German mathematician Gerd Faltings. Faltings received the prize for "introducing powerful tools in arithmetic geometry and resolving long-standing Diophantine conjectures of Mordell and Lang". Falting's most famous result goes back to 1983 when he proved what was known as the Mordell conjecture.

Gerd Faltings, director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, has been awarded the 2026 Abel Prize... The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2026 Abel Prize to Gerd Faltings... "for introducing powerful tools in arithmetic geometry and solving long-standing diophantine conjectures by Mordell and Lang."

The European Mathematical Society warmly congratulates Gerd Faltings on being awarded the 2026 Abel Prize. Faltings... was honoured by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters “for introducing powerful tools in arithmetic geometry and resolving long-standing diophantine conjectures of Mordell and Lang.” Among his best-known achievements is his proof of the Mordell conjecture in 1983, a result that became known as Faltings' theorem.

On March 19, 2026, the Academy announced that Gerd Faltings has won the 2026 Abel Prize, sometimes referred to as the “Nobel of Math.” Faltings received the honor for introducing “powerful tools in arithmetic geometry.” For six decades, no one could prove Mordell's conjecture. Then, in 1983, Gerd Faltings did it. His proof showed that such curves cannot have infinitely many rational points. It transformed arithmetic geometry by revealing that the number of solutions depends on the deeper geometric structure of the curve. From that point on, it was no longer called Mordell's conjecture, but Faltings' Theorem.

German mathematician Gerd Faltings has won the 2026 Abel Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, for proving the long-standing Mordell conjecture and laying foundations for major areas of modern research. Faltings, 71, was recognized for his 1983 proof of the Mordell conjecture, which concerns Diophantine equations, or equations whose solutions must be rational numbers that can be expressed as fractions of integers.

German mathematician Gerd Faltings has won the 2026 Abel Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, for proving the long-standing Mordell conjecture and laying foundations for major areas of modern research. Faltings, 71, was recognized for his 1983 proof of the Mordell conjecture, which concerns Diophantine equations.

The German mathematician Gerd Faltings has won the Abel Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Faltings, a Fields Medallist (1986) and Shaw Prize laureate (2015), is particularly well known for his proof of Mordell's theorem, which states that for polynomial equations defining curves of genus greater than one, the number of rational solutions is finite. This conjecture establishes a relationship between the rational solutions of a curve and its form, more specifically with the number of holes in its representation. Specifically, Mordell conjectured in 1922 and Faltings proved in 1983 that a curve of genus (number of holes) 2 or more cannot pass through infinitely many rational points.

For the first time ever, the Abel Prize has gone to a German—and this one is based at the University of Bonn! Mathematician Professor Gerd Faltings will receive the award in a ceremony in Oslo on May 26, 2026. Faltings is being awarded the Abel Prize “for introducing powerful tools into arithmetic geometry and solving the longstanding Mordell and Lang conjectures for Diophantine equations.“

In 1983, Gerd Faltings became famous overnight in the mathematical community when he surprisingly proved Mordell's conjecture using entirely novel methods. [...] The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2026 Abel Prize to Gerd Faltings [...] "for introducing powerful tools in arithmetic geometry and solving long-standing diophantine conjectures by Mordell and Lang."

Gerd Faltings, 72 years old, honorary director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany, has been selected as the recipient of the Abel Prize, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics." The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced on the 19th, local time, that Faltings would receive the 2026 Abel Prize. His most notable contribution is the "Faltings theorem," which proved the "Mordell conjecture"—demonstrating that certain complex equations have only a finite number of solutions in rational numbers, rather than infinitely many.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2026 Abel Prize to Gerd Faltings, director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn. The importance of Faltings's work is most famously highlighted by his 1983 proof of the Mordell conjecture, a feat that solved a 60-year-old puzzle and earned him the Fields Medal in 1986. His proof—now known as Faltings' Theorem—demonstrated that equations with a geometric “genus” greater than one have only a finite number of rational solutions.

The Mordell conjecture states that Diophantine equations that give rise to surfaces with two or more holes have only finite many solutions in Gaussian integers with no common factors (Mordell 1922). This conjecture was proved by Faltings (1984) and hence is now also known as Falting's theorem.

The Mordell conjecture was formulated by Louis J. Mordell in 1922–1923 and proved by Gerd Faltings in 1983.